Interactive development environment for visualization of queries and query result information

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to an interactive development environment (IDE) interface that provides historical visualization of queries and query result information iteratively and intuitively. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a process is provided to generate visualizations of queries and processed query result information in a single, persistent, integrated display. Each query and resultant search data information is presented iteratively in chronological order, and maintain a persistent, viewable history of a search data exploration session.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as a Continuationof U.S. application Ser. No. 15/421,172, filed Jan. 31, 2017, titled“Interactive Development Environment For Iterative Query Visualizationand Exploration.” The entire contents of each of the above-listedapplications is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as iffully set forth herein.

BACKGROUND

Modern data centers often comprise thousands of hosts that operatecollectively to service requests from even larger numbers of remoteclients. During operation, components of these data centers can producesignificant volumes of machine-generated data. The unstructured natureof much of this data has made it challenging to perform indexing andsearching operations because of the difficulty of applying semanticmeaning to unstructured data. As the number of hosts and clientsassociated with a data center continues to grow, processing largevolumes of machine-generated data in an intelligent manner continues tobe a priority.

Additionally, effectively presenting the results of such processingpresents a separate challenge. Typically, queries are submitted,processed, and visualized individually in virtual dashboards or notebookenvironments, for instance. The display of subsequent queries andcorresponding visualizations of search result information often replacethe results of previous queries in their entireties, therefore requiringusers to instantiate a new instance of the query application or displayin order to view multiple queries and query results simultaneously.However, in many implementations, the results of the queries are currentonly at the time the query is processed, and updates to the underlyingdata set may not be reflected in these visualizations. Moreover, certainimplementations provide the ability to submit queries that directlyreference data from previously submitted queries. However, as often isthe case when the data set is sufficiently large and continuouslystreaming, the data received from processing the earlier query may nolonger be up to date by the time the more recent query is processed.Under these circumstances, visualization of the more recent query may begenerated with inaccurate, incomplete, or obsolete data.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that is further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to an interactivedevelopment environment (IDE) interface that provides historicalvisualization of queries and query result information iteratively andintuitively. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, aprocess is provided to generate visualizations of queries and processedquery result information in a single, persistent, integrated display.Each query and resultant search data information is presentediteratively in chronological order, thereby maintaining a persistent,viewable history of a search data exploration session.

According to a second embodiment of the present disclosure, when thesize of the display of the entire history of a search data explorationsession exceeds the total viewable display area, the relative positionsof each query and corresponding query result information are maintainedstatically, and a viewing window displays an adjustable portion of thehistory, allowing a user to quickly and intuitively reference previousqueries without having to submit additional queries with redundantparameters.

According to a third embodiment of the present disclosure, thevisualizations are updated in real time by including references toearlier queries and visualizations with dynamically changing values, andmaintain a registry of mappings between references and the displayfeatures that contain the visualizations. The use of dynamic pointersallows a search user to view, analyze, and explore current data inreal-time, again eliminating the need to resubmit a query to obtain themost recent data results.

In various embodiments, the data processed by the system originates asmachine-generated data from multiple sources and the system employs alate binding schema for searching and processing the data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer environment in which anembodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that illustrates how indexers process, index,and store data received from forwarders in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates how a search head and indexersperform a query in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates a scenario where a common customer ID is found amonglog data received from three disparate sources in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that illustrates how a query history isgenerated in an interface of an interactive development environment inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 7A illustrates a search screen in accordance with the disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 7B illustrates a data summary dialog that enables a user to selectvarious data sources in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram that illustrates how feature and pointerdependencies are tracked in a central registry in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram that illustrates how a first feature isdynamically updated based on the definition of a dynamic pointer inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram that illustrates an alternative method for howa first feature is dynamically updated based on the definition of adynamic pointer in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 11A-11C illustrate a series of user interface screens for anexample interactive development environment interface of a search systemin accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 12A-12D illustrate a series of user interface screens for anexample data model-driven report generation interface in accordance withthe disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example query received from a client and executedby search peers in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 14A illustrates a key indicators view in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 14B illustrates an incident review dashboard in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 14C illustrates a proactive monitoring tree in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIG. 14D illustrates a user interface screen displaying both log dataand performance data in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system in which an embodiment may be implemented;

FIG. 16 illustrates a block diagram of an example data intake and querysystem that performs searches across external data systems in accordancewith the disclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 17-19 illustrate a series of user interface screens for an exampledata model-driven report generation interface in accordance with thedisclosed embodiments;

FIGS. 20-22 illustrate example visualizations generated by a reportingapplication in accordance with the disclosed embodiments;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments are described herein according to the following outline:

-   -   1.0. General Overview    -   2.0. Operating Environment        -   2.1. Host Devices        -   2.2. Client Devices        -   2.3. Client Device Applications        -   2.4. Data Server System        -   2.5. Data Ingestion            -   2.5.1. Input            -   2.5.2. Parsing            -   2.5.3. Indexing        -   2.6. Query Processing        -   2.7. Field Extraction        -   2.8. Example Search Screens            -   2.8.1. Dynamic Referencing            -   2.8.2. Iterative Visualization        -   2.9. Data Modeling        -   2.10. Acceleration Techniques            -   2.10.1. Aggregation Technique            -   2.10.2. Keyword Index            -   2.10.3. High Performance Analytics Store            -   2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation        -   2.11. Security Features        -   2.12. Data Center Monitoring        -   2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview        -   2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data            -   2.14.1. ERP Process Features        -   2.15. IT Service Monitoring

1.0. General Overview

Modern data centers and other computing environments can compriseanywhere from a few host computer systems to thousands of systemsconfigured to process data, service requests from remote clients, andperform numerous other computational tasks. During operation, variouscomponents within these computing environments often generatesignificant volumes of machine-generated data. For example, machine datais generated by various components in the information technology (IT)environments, such as servers, sensors, routers, mobile devices,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. Machine-generated data caninclude system logs, network packet data, sensor data, applicationprogram data, error logs, stack traces, system performance data, etc. Ingeneral, machine-generated data can also include performance data,diagnostic information, and many other types of data that can beanalyzed to diagnose performance problems, monitor user interactions,and to derive other insights.

A number of tools are available to analyze machine data, that is,machine-generated data. In order to reduce the size of the potentiallyvast amount of machine data that may be generated, many of these toolstypically pre-process the data based on anticipated data-analysis needs.For example, pre-specified data items may be extracted from the machinedata and stored in a database to facilitate efficient retrieval andanalysis of those data items at search time. However, the rest of themachine data typically is not saved and discarded during pre-processing.As storage capacity becomes progressively cheaper and more plentiful,there are fewer incentives to discard these portions of machine data andmany reasons to retain more of the data.

This plentiful storage capacity is presently making it feasible to storemassive quantities of minimally processed machine data for laterretrieval and analysis. In general, storing minimally processed machinedata and performing analysis operations at search time can providegreater flexibility because it enables an analyst to search all of themachine data, instead of searching only a pre-specified set of dataitems. This may enable an analyst to investigate different aspects ofthe machine data that previously were unavailable for analysis.

However, analyzing and searching massive quantities of machine datapresents a number of challenges. For example, a data center, servers, ornetwork appliances may generate many different types and formats ofmachine data (e.g., system logs, network packet data (e.g., wire data,etc.), sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces,system performance data, operating system data, virtualization data,etc.) from thousands of different components, which can collectively bevery time-consuming to analyze. In another example, mobile devices maygenerate large amounts of information relating to data accesses,application performance, operating system performance, networkperformance, etc. There can be millions of mobile devices that reportthese types of information.

These challenges can be addressed by using an event-based data intakeand query system, such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system developed bySplunk Inc. of San Francisco, Calif. The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system isthe leading platform for providing real-time operational intelligencethat enables organizations to collect, index, and searchmachine-generated data from various websites, applications, servers,networks, and mobile devices that power their businesses. The SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system is particularly useful for analyzing data which iscommonly found in system log files, network data, and other data inputsources. Although many of the techniques described herein are explainedwith reference to a data intake and query system similar to the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system, these techniques are also applicable to other typesof data systems.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, machine-generated data are collectedand stored as “events”. An event comprises a portion of themachine-generated data and is associated with a specific point in time.For example, events may be derived from “time series data,” where thetime series data comprises a sequence of data points (e.g., performancemeasurements from a computer system, etc.) that are associated withsuccessive points in time. In general, each event can be associated witha timestamp that is derived from the raw data in the event, determinedthrough interpolation between temporally proximate events having knowntimestamps, or determined based on other configurable rules forassociating timestamps with events, etc.

In some instances, machine data can have a predefined format, where dataitems with specific data formats are stored at predefined locations inthe data. For example, the machine data may include data stored asfields in a database table. In other instances, machine data may nothave a predefined format, that is, the data is not at fixed, predefinedlocations, but the data does have repeatable patterns and is not random.This means that some machine data can comprise various data items ofdifferent data types and that may be stored at different locationswithin the data. For example, when the data source is an operatingsystem log, an event can include one or more lines from the operatingsystem log containing raw data that includes different types ofperformance and diagnostic information associated with a specific pointin time.

Examples of components which may generate machine data from which eventscan be derived include, but are not limited to, web servers, applicationservers, databases, firewalls, routers, operating systems, and softwareapplications that execute on computer systems, mobile devices, sensors,Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. The data generated by such datasources can include, for example and without limitation, server logfiles, activity log files, configuration files, messages, network packetdata, performance measurements, sensor measurements, etc.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system uses flexible schema to specify how toextract information from the event data. A flexible schema may bedeveloped and redefined as needed. Note that a flexible schema may beapplied to event data “on the fly,” when it is needed (e.g., at searchtime, index time, ingestion time, etc.). When the schema is not appliedto event data until search time it may be referred to as a “late-bindingschema.”

During operation, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system starts with raw inputdata (e.g., one or more system logs, streams of network packet data,sensor data, application program data, error logs, stack traces, systemperformance data, etc.). The system divides this raw data into blocks(e.g., buckets of data, each associated with a specific time frame,etc.), and parses the raw data to produce timestamped events. The systemstores the timestamped events in a data store. The system enables usersto run queries against the stored data to, for example, retrieve eventsthat meet criteria specified in a query, such as containing certainkeywords or having specific values in defined fields. As used hereinthroughout, data that is part of an event is referred to as “eventdata”. In this context, the term “field” refers to a location in theevent data containing one or more values for a specific data item. Aswill be described in more detail herein, the fields are defined byextraction rules (e.g., regular expressions) that derive one or morevalues from the portion of raw machine data in each event that has aparticular field specified by an extraction rule. The set of values soproduced are semantically-related (such as IP address), even though theraw machine data in each event may be in different formats (e.g.,semantically-related values may be in different positions in the eventsderived from different sources).

As noted above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system utilizes a late-bindingschema to event data while performing queries on events. One aspect of alate-binding schema is applying “extraction rules” to event data toextract values for specific fields during search time. Morespecifically, the extraction rules for a field can include one or moreinstructions that specify how to extract a value for the field from theevent data. An extraction rule can generally include any type ofinstruction for extracting values from data in events. In some cases, anextraction rule comprises a regular expression where a sequence ofcharacters form a search pattern, in which case the rule is referred toas a “regex rule.” The system applies the regex rule to the event datato extract values for associated fields in the event data by searchingthe event data for the sequence of characters defined in the regex rule.

In the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, a field extractor may be configured toautomatically generate extraction rules for certain field values in theevents when the events are being created, indexed, or stored, orpossibly at a later time. Alternatively, a user may manually defineextraction rules for fields using a variety of techniques. In contrastto a conventional schema for a database system, a late-binding schema isnot defined at data ingestion time. Instead, the late-binding schema canbe developed on an ongoing basis until the time a query is actuallyexecuted. This means that extraction rules for the fields in a query maybe provided in the query itself, or may be located during execution ofthe query. Hence, as a user learns more about the data in the events,the user can continue to refine the late-binding schema by adding newfields, deleting fields, or modifying the field extraction rules for usethe next time the schema is used by the system. Because the SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system maintains the underlying raw data and useslate-binding schema for searching the raw data, it enables a user tocontinue investigating and learn valuable insights about the raw data.

In some embodiments, a common field name may be used to reference two ormore fields containing equivalent data items, even though the fields maybe associated with different types of events that possibly havedifferent data formats and different extraction rules. By enabling acommon field name to be used to identify equivalent fields fromdifferent types of events generated by disparate data sources, thesystem facilitates use of a “common information model” (CIM) across thedisparate data sources (further discussed with respect to FIG. 5).

2.0. Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked computer system 100 in which anembodiment may be implemented. Those skilled in the art would understandthat FIG. 1 represents one example of a networked computer system andother embodiments may use different arrangements.

The networked computer system 100 comprises one or more computingdevices. These one or more computing devices comprise any combination ofhardware and software configured to implement the various logicalcomponents described herein. For example, the one or more computingdevices may include one or more memories that store instructions forimplementing the various components described herein, one or morehardware processors configured to execute the instructions stored in theone or more memories, and various data repositories in the one or morememories for storing data structures utilized and manipulated by thevarious components.

In an embodiment, one or more client devices 102 are coupled to one ormore host devices 106 and a data intake and query system 108 via one ormore networks 104. Networks 104 broadly represent one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks (e.g., LTE, HSPA, 3G, and other cellulartechnologies), or networks using any of wired, wireless, terrestrialmicrowave, or satellite links, and may include the public Internet.

2.1. Host Devices

In the illustrated embodiment, a system 100 includes one or more hostdevices 106. Host devices 106 may broadly include any number ofcomputers, virtual machine instances, or data centers that areconfigured to host or execute one or more instances of host applications114. In general, a host device 106 may be involved, directly orindirectly, in processing requests received from client devices 102.Each host device 106 may comprise, for example, one or more of a networkdevice, a web server, an application server, a database server, etc. Acollection of host devices 106 may be configured to implement anetwork-based service. For example, a provider of a network-basedservice may configure one or more host devices 106 and host applications114 (e.g., one or more web servers, application servers, databaseservers, etc.) to collectively implement the network-based application.

In general, client devices 102 communicate with one or more hostapplications 114 to exchange information. The communication between aclient device 102 and a host application 114 may, for example, be basedon the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or any other network protocol.Content delivered from the host application 114 to a client device 102may include, for example, HTML documents, media content, etc. Thecommunication between a client device 102 and host application 114 mayinclude sending various requests and receiving data packets. Forexample, in general, a client device 102 or application running on aclient device may initiate communication with a host application 114 bymaking a request for a specific resource (e.g., based on an HTTPrequest), and the application server may respond with the requestedcontent stored in one or more response packets.

In the illustrated embodiment, one or more of host applications 114 maygenerate various types of performance data during operation, includingevent logs, network data, sensor data, and other types ofmachine-generated data. For example, a host application 114 comprising aweb server may generate one or more web server logs in which details ofinteractions between the web server and any number of client devices 102is recorded. As another example, a host device 106 comprising a routermay generate one or more router logs that record information related tonetwork traffic managed by the router. As yet another example, a hostapplication 114 comprising a database server may generate one or morelogs that record information related to requests sent from other hostapplications 114 (e.g., web servers or application servers) for datamanaged by the database server.

2.2. Client Devices

Client devices 102 of FIG. 1 represent any computing device capable ofinteracting with one or more host devices 106 via a network 104.Examples of client devices 102 may include, without limitation, smartphones, tablet computers, handheld computers, wearable devices, laptopcomputers, desktop computers, servers, portable media players, gamingdevices, and so forth. In general, a client device 102 can provideaccess to different content, for instance, content provided by one ormore host devices 106, etc. Each client device 102 may comprise one ormore client applications 110, described in more detail in a separatesection hereinafter.

2.3. Client Device Applications

In an embodiment, each client device 102 may host or execute one or moreclient applications 110 that are capable of interacting with one or morehost devices 106 via one or more networks 104. For instance, a clientapplication 110 may be or comprise a web browser that a user may use tonavigate to one or more websites or other resources provided by one ormore host devices 106. As another example, a client application 110 maycomprise a mobile application or “app.” For example, an operator of anetwork-based service hosted by one or more host devices 106 may makeavailable one or more mobile apps that enable users of client devices102 to access various resources of the network-based service. As yetanother example, client applications 110 may include backgroundprocesses that perform various operations without direct interactionfrom a user. A client application 110 may include a “plug-in” or“extension” to another application, such as a web browser plug-in orextension.

In an embodiment, a client application 110 may include a monitoringcomponent 112. At a high level, the monitoring component 112 comprises asoftware component or other logic that facilitates generatingperformance data related to a client device's operating state, includingmonitoring network traffic sent and received from the client device andcollecting other device or application-specific information. Monitoringcomponent 112 may be an integrated component of a client application110, a plug-in, an extension, or any other type of add-on component.Monitoring component 112 may also be a stand-alone process.

In one embodiment, a monitoring component 112 may be created when aclient application 110 is developed, for example, by an applicationdeveloper using a software development kit (SDK). The SDK may includecustom monitoring code that can be incorporated into the codeimplementing a client application 110. When the code is converted to anexecutable application, the custom code implementing the monitoringfunctionality can become part of the application itself.

In some cases, an SDK or other code for implementing the monitoringfunctionality may be offered by a provider of a data intake and querysystem, such as a system 108. In such cases, the provider of the system108 can implement the custom code so that performance data generated bythe monitoring functionality is sent to the system 108 to facilitateanalysis of the performance data by a developer of the clientapplication or other users.

In an embodiment, the custom monitoring code may be incorporated intothe code of a client application 110 in a number of different ways, suchas the insertion of one or more lines in the client application codethat call or otherwise invoke the monitoring component 112. As such, adeveloper of a client application 110 can add one or more lines of codeinto the client application 110 to trigger the monitoring component 112at desired points during execution of the application. Code thattriggers the monitoring component may be referred to as a monitortrigger. For instance, a monitor trigger may be included at or near thebeginning of the executable code of the client application 110 such thatthe monitoring component 112 is initiated or triggered as theapplication is launched, or included at other points in the code thatcorrespond to various actions of the client application, such as sendinga network request or displaying a particular interface.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may monitor one or moreaspects of network traffic sent or received by a client application 110.For example, the monitoring component 112 may be configured to monitordata packets transmitted to or from one or more host applications 114.Incoming or outgoing data packets can be read or examined to identifynetwork data contained within the packets, for example, and otheraspects of data packets can be analyzed to determine a number of networkperformance statistics. Monitoring network traffic may enableinformation to be gathered particular to the network performanceassociated with a client application 110 or set of applications.

In an embodiment, network performance data refers to any type of datathat indicates information about the network or network performance.Network performance data may include, for instance, a URL requested, aconnection type (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, etc.), a connection start time, aconnection end time, an HTTP status code, request length, responselength, request headers, response headers, connection status (e.g.,completion, response time(s), failure, etc.), and the like. Uponobtaining network performance data indicating performance of thenetwork, the network performance data can be transmitted to a dataintake and query system 108 for analysis.

Upon developing a client application 110 that incorporates a monitoringcomponent 112, the client application 110 can be distributed to clientdevices 102. Applications generally can be distributed to client devices102 in any manner, or they can be pre-loaded. In some cases, theapplication may be distributed to a client device 102 via an applicationmarketplace or other application distribution system. For instance, anapplication marketplace or other application distribution system mightdistribute the application to a client device based on a request fromthe client device to download the application.

Examples of functionality that enables monitoring performance of aclient device are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/524,748, entitled “UTILIZING PACKET HEADERS TO MONITOR NETWORKTRAFFIC IN ASSOCIATION WITH A CLIENT DEVICE”, filed on 27 Oct. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect performance data related to one or more aspects of theoperational state of a client application 110 or client device 102. Forexample, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to collect deviceperformance information by monitoring one or more client deviceoperations, or by making calls to an operating system or one or moreother applications executing on a client device 102 for performanceinformation. Device performance information may include, for instance, acurrent wireless signal strength of the device, a current connectiontype and network carrier, current memory performance information, ageographic location of the device, a device orientation, and any otherinformation related to the operational state of the client device.

In an embodiment, the monitoring component 112 may also monitor andcollect other device profile information including, for example, a typeof client device, a manufacturer and model of the device, versions ofvarious software applications installed on the device, and so forth.

In general, a monitoring component 112 may be configured to generateperformance data in response to a monitor trigger in the code of aclient application 110 or other triggering application event, asdescribed above, and to store the performance data in one or more datarecords. Each data record, for example, may include a collection offield-value pairs, each field-value pair storing a particular item ofperformance data in association with a field for the item. For example,a data record generated by a monitoring component 112 may include a“networkLatency” field (not shown in the Figure) in which a value isstored. This field indicates a network latency measurement associatedwith one or more network requests. The data record may include a “state”field to store a value indicating a state of a network connection, andso forth for any number of aspects of collected performance data.

2.4. Data Server System

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an exemplary data intake and querysystem 108, similar to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. System 108includes one or more forwarders 204 that receive data from a variety ofinput data sources 202, and one or more indexers 206 that process andstore the data in one or more data stores 208. These forwarders andindexers can comprise separate computer systems, or may alternativelycomprise separate processes executing on one or more computer systems.

Each data source 202 broadly represents a distinct source of data thatcan be consumed by a system 108. Examples of a data source 202 include,without limitation, data files, directories of files, data sent over anetwork, event logs, registries, etc.

During operation, the forwarders 204 identify which indexers 206 receivedata collected from a data source 202 and forward the data to theappropriate indexers. Forwarders 204 can also perform operations on thedata before forwarding, including removing extraneous data, detectingtimestamps in the data, parsing data, indexing data, routing data basedon criteria relating to the data being routed, or performing other datatransformations.

In an embodiment, a forwarder 204 may comprise a service accessible toclient devices 102 and host devices 106 via a network 104. For example,one type of forwarder 204 may be capable of consuming vast amounts ofreal-time data from a potentially large number of client devices 102 orhost devices 106. The forwarder 204 may, for example, comprise acomputing device which implements multiple data pipelines or “queues” tohandle forwarding of network data to indexers 206. A forwarder 204 mayalso perform many of the functions that are performed by an indexer. Forexample, a forwarder 204 may perform keyword extractions on raw data orparse raw data to create events. A forwarder 204 may generate timestamps for events. Additionally or alternatively, a forwarder 204 mayperform routing of events to indexers. Data store 208 may contain eventsderived from machine data from a variety of sources all pertaining tothe same component in an IT environment, and this data may be producedby the machine in question or by other components in the IT environment.

2.5. Data Ingestion

FIG. 3 depicts a flow chart illustrating an example data flow performedby Data Intake and Query system 108, in accordance with the disclosedembodiments. The data flow illustrated in FIG. 3 is provided forillustrative purposes only; those skilled in the art would understandthat one or more of the steps of the processes illustrated in FIG. 3 maybe removed or the ordering of the steps may be changed. Furthermore, forthe purposes of illustrating a clear example, one or more particularsystem components are described in the context of performing variousoperations during each of the data flow stages. For example, a forwarderis described as receiving and processing data during an input phase; anindexer is described as parsing and indexing data during parsing andindexing phases; and a search head is described as performing a queryduring a search phase. However, other system arrangements anddistributions of the processing steps across system components may beused.

2.5.1. Input

At block 302, a forwarder receives data from an input source, such as adata source 202 shown in FIG. 2. A forwarder initially may receive thedata as a raw data stream generated by the input source. For example, aforwarder may receive a data stream from a log file generated by anapplication server, from a stream of network data from a network device,or from any other source of data. In one embodiment, a forwarderreceives the raw data and may segment the data stream into “blocks”, or“buckets,” possibly of a uniform data size, to facilitate subsequentprocessing steps.

At block 304, a forwarder or other system component annotates each blockgenerated from the raw data with one or more metadata fields. Thesemetadata fields may, for example, provide information related to thedata block as a whole and may apply to each event that is subsequentlyderived from the data in the data block. For example, the metadatafields may include separate fields specifying each of a host, a source,and a source type related to the data block. A host field may contain avalue identifying a host name or IP address of a device that generatedthe data. A source field may contain a value identifying a source of thedata, such as a pathname of a file or a protocol and port related toreceived network data. A source type field may contain a valuespecifying a particular source type label for the data. Additionalmetadata fields may also be included during the input phase, such as acharacter encoding of the data, if known, and possibly other values thatprovide information relevant to later processing steps. In anembodiment, a forwarder forwards the annotated data blocks to anothersystem component (typically an indexer) for further processing.

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system allows forwarding of data from one SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE instance to another, or even to a third-party system. SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE system can employ different types of forwarders in aconfiguration.

In an embodiment, a forwarder may contain the essential componentsneeded to forward data. It can gather data from a variety of inputs andforward the data to a SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE server for indexing andsearching. It also can tag metadata (e.g., source, source type, host,etc.).

Additionally or optionally, in an embodiment, a forwarder has thecapabilities of the aforementioned forwarder as well as additionalcapabilities. The forwarder can parse data before forwarding the data(e.g., associate a time stamp with a portion of data and create anevent, etc.) and can route data based on criteria such as source or typeof event. It can also index data locally while forwarding the data toanother indexer.

2.5.2. Parsing

At block 306, an indexer receives data blocks from a forwarder andparses the data to organize the data into events. In an embodiment, toorganize the data into events, an indexer may determine a source typeassociated with each data block (e.g., by extracting a source type labelfrom the metadata fields associated with the data block, etc.) and referto a source type configuration corresponding to the identified sourcetype. The source type definition may include one or more properties thatindicate to the indexer to automatically determine the boundaries ofevents within the data. In general, these properties may include regularexpression-based rules or delimiter rules where, for example, eventboundaries may be indicated by predefined characters or characterstrings. These predefined characters may include punctuation marks orother special characters including, for example, carriage returns, tabs,spaces, line breaks, etc. If a source type for the data is unknown tothe indexer, an indexer may infer a source type for the data byexamining the structure of the data. Then, it can apply an inferredsource type definition to the data to create the events.

At block 308, the indexer determines a timestamp for each event. Similarto the process for creating events, an indexer may again refer to asource type definition associated with the data to locate one or moreproperties that indicate instructions for determining a timestamp foreach event. The properties may, for example, instruct an indexer toextract a time value from a portion of data in the event, to interpolatetime values based on timestamps associated with temporally proximateevents, to create a timestamp based on a time the event data wasreceived or generated, to use the timestamp of a previous event, or useany other rules for determining timestamps.

At block 310, the indexer associates with each event one or moremetadata fields including a field containing the timestamp (in someembodiments, a timestamp may be included in the metadata fields)determined for the event. These metadata fields may include a number of“default fields” that are associated with all events, and may alsoinclude one more custom fields as defined by a user. Similar to themetadata fields associated with the data blocks at block 304, thedefault metadata fields associated with each event may include a host,source, and source type field including or in addition to a fieldstoring the timestamp.

At block 312, an indexer may optionally apply one or moretransformations to data included in the events created at block 306. Forexample, such transformations can include removing a portion of an event(e.g., a portion used to define event boundaries, extraneous charactersfrom the event, other extraneous text, etc.), masking a portion of anevent (e.g., masking a credit card number), removing redundant portionsof an event, etc. The transformations applied to event data may, forexample, be specified in one or more configuration files and referencedby one or more source type definitions.

2.5.3. Indexing

At blocks 314 and 316, an indexer can optionally generate a keywordindex to facilitate fast keyword searching for event data. To build akeyword index, at block 314, the indexer identifies a set of keywords ineach event. At block 316, the indexer includes the identified keywordsin an index, which associates each stored keyword with referencepointers to events containing that keyword (or to locations withinevents where that keyword is located, other location identifiers, etc.).When an indexer subsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexercan access the keyword index to quickly identify events containing thekeyword.

In some embodiments, the keyword index may include entries forname-value pairs found in events, where a name-value pair can include apair of keywords connected by a symbol, such as an equals sign or colon.This way, events containing these name-value pairs can be quicklylocated. In some embodiments, fields can automatically be generated forsome or all of the name-value pairs at the time of indexing. Forexample, if the string “dest=10.0.1.2” is found in an event, a fieldnamed “dest” may be created for the event, and assigned a value of“10.0.1.2”.

At block 318, the indexer stores the events with an associated timestampin a data store 208. Timestamps enable a user to search for events basedon a time range. In one embodiment, the stored events are organized into“buckets,” where each bucket stores events associated with a specifictime range based on the timestamps associated with each event. This maynot only improve time-based searching, but also allows for events withrecent timestamps, which may have a higher likelihood of being accessed,to be stored in a faster memory to facilitate faster retrieval. Forexample, buckets containing the most recent events can be stored inflash memory rather than on a hard disk.

Each indexer 206 may be responsible for storing and searching a subsetof the events contained in a corresponding data store 208. Bydistributing events among the indexers and data stores, the indexers cananalyze events for a query in parallel. For example, using map-reducetechniques, each indexer returns partial responses for a subset ofevents to a search head that combines the results to produce an answerfor the query. By storing events in buckets for specific time ranges, anindexer may further optimize data retrieval process by searching bucketscorresponding to time ranges that are relevant to a query.

Moreover, events and buckets can also be replicated across differentindexers and data stores to facilitate high availability and disasterrecovery as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,812,entitled “SITE-BASED SEARCH AFFINITY”, filed on 30 Apr. 2014, and inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,817, entitled “MULTI-SITECLUSTERING”, also filed on 30 Apr. 2014, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

2.6. Query Processing

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that illustrates an exemplary process that asearch head and one or more indexers may perform during a query. Atblock 402, a search head receives a query from a client. At block 404,the search head analyzes the query to determine what portion(s) of thequery can be delegated to indexers and what portions of the query can beexecuted locally by the search head. At block 406, the search headdistributes the determined portions of the query to the appropriateindexers. In an embodiment, a search head cluster may take the place ofan independent search head where each search head in the search headcluster coordinates with peer search heads in the search head cluster toschedule jobs, replicate search results, update configurations, fulfillsearch requests, etc. In an embodiment, the search head (or each searchhead) communicates with a master node (also known as a cluster master,not shown in Fig.) that provides the search head with a list of indexersto which the search head can distribute the determined portions of thequery. The master node maintains a list of active indexers and can alsodesignate which indexers may have responsibility for responding toqueries over certain sets of events. A search head may communicate withthe master node before the search head distributes queries to indexersto discover the addresses of active indexers.

At block 408, the indexers to which the query was distributed, searchdata stores associated with them for events that are responsive to thequery. To determine which events are responsive to the query, theindexer searches for events that match the criteria specified in thequery. These criteria can include matching keywords or specific valuesfor certain fields. The searching operations at block 408 may use thelate-binding schema to extract values for specified fields from eventsat the time the query is processed. In an embodiment, one or more rulesfor extracting field values may be specified as part of a source typedefinition. The indexers may then either send the relevant events backto the search head, or use the events to determine a partial result, andsend the partial result back to the search head.

At block 410, the search head combines the partial results or eventsreceived from the indexers to produce a final result for the query. Thisfinal result may comprise different types of data depending on what thequery requested. For example, the results can include a listing ofmatching events returned by the query, or some type of visualization ofthe data from the returned events. In another example, the final resultcan include one or more calculated values derived from the matchingevents.

The results generated by the system 108 can be returned to a clientusing different techniques. For example, one technique streams resultsor relevant events back to a client in real-time as they are identified.Another technique waits to report the results to the client until acomplete set of results (which may include a set of relevant events or aresult based on relevant events) is ready to return to the client. Yetanother technique streams interim results or relevant events back to theclient in real-time until a complete set of results is ready, and thenreturns the complete set of results to the client. In another technique,certain results are stored as “search jobs” and the client may retrievethe results by referring the search jobs.

The search head can also perform various operations to make the searchmore efficient. For example, before the search head begins execution ofa query, the search head can determine a time range for the query and aset of common keywords that all matching events include. The search headmay then use these parameters to query the indexers to obtain a supersetof the eventual results. Then, during a filtering stage, the search headcan perform field-extraction operations on the superset to produce areduced set of search results. This speeds up queries that are performedon a periodic basis.

2.7. Field Extraction

The search head 210 allows users to search and visualize event dataextracted from raw machine data received from homogenous data sources.It also allows users to search and visualize event data extracted fromraw machine data received from heterogeneous data sources. The searchhead 210 includes various mechanisms, which may additionally reside inan indexer 206, for processing a query. Splunk Processing Language(SPL), used in conjunction with the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system, can beutilized to make a query. SPL is a pipelined search language in which aset of inputs is operated on by a first command in a command line, andthen a subsequent command following the pipe symbol “|” operates on theresults produced by the first command, and so on for additionalcommands. Other query languages, such as the Structured Query Language(“SQL”), can be used to create a query.

In response to receiving the query, search head 210 uses extractionrules to extract values for the fields associated with a field or fieldsin the event data being searched. The search head 210 obtains extractionrules that specify how to extract a value for certain fields from anevent. Extraction rules can comprise regex rules that specify how toextract values for the relevant fields. In addition to specifying how toextract field values, the extraction rules may also include instructionsfor deriving a field value by performing a function on a characterstring or value retrieved by the extraction rule. For example, atransformation rule may truncate a character string, or convert thecharacter string into a different data format. In some cases, the queryitself can specify one or more extraction rules.

The search head 210 can apply the extraction rules to event data that itreceives from indexers 206. Indexers 206 may apply the extraction rulesto events in an associated data store 208. Extraction rules can beapplied to all the events in a data store, or to a subset of the eventsthat have been filtered based on some criteria (e.g., event time stampvalues, etc.). Extraction rules can be used to extract one or morevalues for a field from events by parsing the event data and examiningthe event data for one or more patterns of characters, numbers,delimiters, etc., that indicate where the field begins and, optionally,ends.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of raw machine data received fromdisparate data sources. In this example, a user submits an order formerchandise using a vendor's shopping application program 501 running onthe user's system. In this example, the order was not delivered to thevendor's server due to a resource exception at the destination serverthat is detected by the middleware code 502. The user then sends amessage to the customer support 503 to complain about the order failingto complete. The three systems 501, 502, and 503 are disparate systemsthat do not have a common logging format. The order application 501sends log data 504 to the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system in one format, themiddleware code 502 sends error log data 505 in a second format, and thesupport server 503 sends log data 506 in a third format.

Using the log data received at one or more indexers 206 from the threesystems the vendor can uniquely obtain an insight into user activity,user experience, and system behavior. The search head 210 allows thevendor's administrator to search the log data from the three systemsthat one or more indexers 206 are responsible for searching, therebyobtaining correlated information, such as the order number andcorresponding customer ID number of the person placing the order. Thesystem also allows the administrator to see a visualization of relatedevents via a user interface. The administrator can query the search head210 for customer ID field value matches across the log data from thethree systems that are stored at the one or more indexers 206. Thecustomer ID field value exists in the data gathered from the threesystems, but the customer ID field value may be located in differentareas of the data given differences in the architecture of thesystems—there is a semantic relationship between the customer ID fieldvalues generated by the three systems. The search head 210 requestsevent data from the one or more indexers 206 to gather relevant eventdata from the three systems. It then applies extraction rules to theevent data in order to extract field values that it can correlate. Thesearch head may apply a different extraction rule to each set of eventsfrom each system when the event data format differs among systems. Inthis example, the user interface can display to the administrator theevent data corresponding to the common customer ID field values 507,508, and 509, thereby providing the administrator with insight into acustomer's experience.

Note that query results can be returned to a client, a search head, orany other system component for further processing. In general, queryresults may include a set of one or more events, a set of one or morevalues obtained from the events, a subset of the values, statisticscalculated based on the values, a report containing the values, or avisualization, such as a graph or chart, generated from the values.

2.8. Example Search Screens

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that illustrates an exemplary process 600performed to generate a graphical presentation of data received inresponse to a query. At block 602, a query is generated based on userinput. In one or more embodiments, the query may be generated based oninput received in an interface of an interactive development environment(IDE). The input may consist of, for example, one or more characters ora search string conforming to a syntax of a query language submittedthrough one or more user input devices of a client or other computingdevice executing an instance of the IDE. According to furtherembodiments, the IDE may be implemented as a read-eval-print loop (REPL)or notebook that supports iterative exploration of a data set of machinegenerated raw data using a query language. Generation of the query maybe performed by parsing the input string to determine one or moreparameters and one or more operations to perform on a given data set.

The query is then communicated to a search system (e.g., to one or morecommunicatively coupled search heads via an interconnecting network) atblock 604. Information corresponding to the query is generated andformatted in the one or more communicatively coupled search heads (asdescribed above) and the resulting data is received in the instance ofthe IDE on the client computing device at block 606. The system mayemploy a late binding schema in one or more embodiments to process thequery and the raw machine generated data.

At block 608, a graphical representation of the search resultinformation is generated (e.g., by a processing unit), and displayed ina display device at block 610. The graphical representation may begenerated, in one or more embodiments, by a processing unit in theclient device executing the instance of the IDE or REPL interface.Alternately, the graphical representation may be generated in whole orin part remotely (e.g., at one or more servers corresponding to one ormore search heads), and subsequently transmitted to the client computingdevice. According to one or more embodiments, the graphicalrepresentation may include one or more display features that visuallyrepresent the query that was submitted, and one or more data points inthe result information. These display features may include, but are notlimited to, graphs, tables, charts, and any other graphical datarepresentation. In one or more embodiments, the graphical representationof the search result information may be presented chronologicallyin-line and adjacent to a display of the input (query) used to generatethe result information.

In one or more embodiments, multiple queries and a correspondingplurality of search result information are automatically presented inthe IDE interface. According to these embodiments, each subsequent querybeyond a first query may be submitted iteratively via the interface ofthe IDE, with the corresponding graphical representation of the queryresults displayed adjacent to and in-line with respect to the associatedquery. In still further embodiments, the entire history of queries andresulting corresponding visualization data of an exploration session ispresented advantageously within a single display panel.

One or more display features may include dynamic references. Thesereferences (implemented as pointers, for example) may correspond toearlier queries with one or more values subject to change. A value of aquery may change, for example, based on new or updated data in the dataset as submitted by one or more client computing devices and received bysearch heads of the search system. A central registry of the IDE is usedto store mappings between display features and references, and mappingsbetween references and queries. In one or more embodiments, dataelements may correspond to discrete events extracted from raw data inthe data set, and stored in one or more data stores as event records.

For example, a query may include a dynamic reference to one or morepreceding queries, such that query result information from the one ormore preceding queries are imparted or inherited by the dynamicallyreferencing query. Such relationship may be organized according to adata dependency relationship structure, such as a parent-child(ancestry), or root-leaf relationships. In one or more embodiments, forvisualizations of queries that dynamically reference earlier query data,changes to the result information of the referenced queriesautomatically trigger corresponding changes in the visualizations of theresult information for the referencing queries.

According to one or more embodiments, generating a visualization of aquery that dynamically references a preceding query causes thevisualization of the query result to automatically include the resultinformation from the query being referenced. The generated visualizationautomatically combines the result information of both the referencingquery and the query being referenced, in effect, concatenating theseparate search strings used to generate both queries. This inheritancecan be performed without requiring the search user to enter the searchstring for the preceding queries being referenced. For example,according to various embodiments, a query automatically referencesresult information from preceding queries submitted for the same dataset, for the same queried fields, or according to another shared queryparameter. According to other embodiments, a user is able to explicitlyinclude a reference to result information from a preceding query using apre-defined operator in the referencing query. In one or more furtherembodiments, referencing queries may themselves be referenced bysubsequent queries, such that result information is inherited andpresented in multiple visualizations.

The mappings between references and data elements may thus beimplemented by mapping references to event records. When an event recordchanges (due to another parsed event that modifies the data element, forexample), a notification is generated, and the visualization isautomatically changed (periodically or in real-time) to reflect theupdated data via the stored mapping(s) at block 612.

Contrary to conventional applications, such an implementation allows auser to iteratively and conveniently compare search data visualizations(including queries and query results) resulting from various querieswithout creating a new instance of a dashboard, report, or 9displaypanel in the IDE. In further embodiments, when the size of theinformation display exceeds a threshold display size, each query andcorresponding display feature may be statically presented at a relativeposition in the display, with the viewable region of the display beingadjustable (e.g., via scrolling) based on user interaction. Throughembodiments of the present disclosure, a user of the IDE interface isable to advantageously explore the most current data corresponding to aquery by using dynamic references to previously submitted queries,thereby avoiding the need to submit an additional (redundant) query ondemand, in contrast to conventional data search and reporting solutions,which are typically only able to present data statically (e.g., as asnapshot) at the time the query was processed.

FIG. 7A illustrates an example search screen (graphical display) 700 inaccordance with the disclosed embodiments. Search screen 700 includes anumber of graphical user interface elements including a search bar 702that accepts user input in the form of a search string. It also includesa time range picker 712 that enables the user to specify a time rangefor the search. For “historical searches” the user can select a specifictime range, or alternatively a relative time range, such as “today,”“yesterday” or “last week.” For “real-time searches,” the user canselect the size of a preceding time window to search for real-timeevents. Search screen 700 also initially displays a “data summary”dialog as is illustrated in FIG. 7B that enables the user to selectdifferent sources for the event data, such as by selecting specifichosts and log files.

After the search is executed, the search screen 700 in FIG. 7A candisplay the results through search results tabs 704, wherein searchresults tabs 704 includes: an “events tab” that displays variousinformation about events returned by the search; a “statistics tab” thatdisplays statistics about the search results; and a “visualization tab”that displays various visualizations of the search results. The eventstab illustrated in FIG. 7A displays a timeline graph 705 thatgraphically illustrates the number of events that occurred in one-hourintervals over the selected time range. It also displays an events list708 that enables a user to view the raw data in each of the returnedevents. It additionally displays a fields sidebar 706 that includesstatistics about occurrences of specific fields in the returned events,including “selected fields” that are pre-selected by the user, and“interesting fields” that are automatically selected by the system basedon pre-specified criteria.

2.8.1. Dynamic Referencing

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of an exemplary process800 for tracking feature and pointer dependencies in a central registryof a search system. According to one or more embodiments, process 800may be performed by or in connection with an IDE interface to generateand maintain graphical representations and visualizations of dynamicelements in the data set of the search system.

Process 800 begins at block 805, where an identifier of a dynamicpointer is determined or received. The identifier name) of the dynamicpointer may be received as, for example, user input submitted through aninterface of an IDE of the search system. The identifier can be receivedas pail of an explicit user attempt to define or register the dynamicpointer. Alternately, the identifier of the dynamic pointer may bedetermined based on a first reference to the pointer in program code.The central registry is updated at block 810 to include the identifierof the dynamic pointer. In one or more embodiments, a redundancy orconflict check may be performed to verify that the identifier of thedynamic pointer was not previously added to the registry. If the dynamicpointer has not yet been defined or set to point to a display feature,its value can be empty. Otherwise, its value can be set to include anidentifier of an appropriate display feature.

At block 815, an identifier of a display feature or element in a searchscreen of the IDE (or REPL) interface is determined (or received), Inone or more embodiments, the identifier of the display feature orelement can be automatically assigned upon detecting that a new displayfeature or element is being defined. The central registry is thenupdated to include the identifier of the new display feature or elementat block 820. In one or more embodiments, the central registry may bequeried to verify that the identifier (e.g., name) of the displayfeature or element was not previously added to the registry.

Characteristics of the display feature or element are then determined(or received from user input) at block 825. In some instances, acharacteristic indicates that a presentation and/or operation of thedisplay feature is to depend on another display feature or element(e.g., via a dynamic pointer). The characteristics can be directlyidentified by a user (e.g., by selecting options or utilizing GUIbuttons) or identified as part of the program code for the feature.Through the IDE interface, a user is able to generate or update theprogram code to define the feature such that it includes thecharacteristics. This program code can be separate from or part of anoverall program code defining the IDE interface. Finally, a data storeor software module in the search system is updated to include thecharacteristics of the display feature at block 830.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of a process 900 fordynamically updating a first display feature based on a definition ofdynamic pointer. In one or more embodiments, the first display featureis displayed in a display of search data as part of an IDE or REPLinterface of a search system. Process 900 begins at block 905, where areference to a pointer is detected. The reference to the pointer mayinclude for example, an identification of the pointer (e.g., as a textor code). The reference to the pointer may be detected by a softwaremodule, component, or application that performs the processing of thedata in the data set to generate, render, or otherwise implement thefirst display feature for display. In one or more embodiments, one orboth of the first graphical feature and the pointer can be previouslyregistered in the search system, e.g., in a central registry. Otherwise,if one or both of the feature and pointer has not been previouslyregistered, registration within the central registry is performed wherenecessary. In response to the detection of the reference to the pointerat block 905, the name of the first display feature is bound (mapped) tothe name of the pointer in the central registry at block 910. As aconsequence of the binding, the first feature is registered (e.g., by anevent detection module of the search system executing over theunderlying data set) to receive notifications of events pertaining tothe dynamic pointer at block 915.

The value for the dynamic pointer is set to a name of a second featurein the search system at block 920. This pointer definition can occurafter receiving instructions or other input indicating that the secondfeature is the intended target for the pointer. It is possible that thesecond feature includes multiple variables, each of which can have avalue. Thus, the pointer definition can be formatted to not onlyidentify the second feature but also to identify the variable ofinterest.

The name of the first feature is then bound to a name of the secondfeature (or name of a variable of the second feature) in the centralregistry at block 925. In one or more embodiments, this binding is anindirect binding, due to the connection facilitated by the intermediatedynamic pointer. The first feature is subsequently registered (e.g., inthe event detection module) to receive notifications of eventspertaining to the second feature at block 930. In one or moreembodiments, each of the first and second feature may correspond todifferent submitted queries, and binding the first and second featurescreates a unilateral dependency such that when a (parent) feature ismodified, the dependent child feature is automatically modified tocorresponding to the modifications of the first feature.

At block 935, the first display feature is notified of the pointerdefinition. The notification may be performed by, for example, the eventdetection module. This notification can include notifying the softwaremodule (e.g., a feature engine) implementing the first display featureof the event and identifying the feature which may be affected by thechange. In some instances, the software module will actively alter theprogrammed instructions (code) of the first display feature based on theevent. For example, the software module may generate a simplified set ofprogrammed instructions by replacing the reference to the dynamicpointer (or instructions defining any previously pointed to feature)with a new set of instructions corresponding to the pointed-to secondfeature. In some instances, no alteration of the program code isnecessary, and the pointer operates to automatically incorporate theappropriate instructions.

At block 940, the original or modified program code of the firstfeature, (or the pointer value or program code of the second feature) isused to generate the first display feature. It will be appreciated thatthe generation can include modifying a previously generated displayfeature. The first display feature may then have a value equal to avalue of the second feature, or a format or content of the first displayfeature may be selected based on the value of the second feature (e.g.,by utilizing an if command or other processing).

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an embodiment of an exemplary process1000 for dynamically updating a first feature based on a dynamicpointer's definition. According to one or more embodiments, process 1000is performed in the same search system via the interface of the IDE (orREPL shell) described above. Process 1000 begins at block 1005, where avalue for the dynamic pointer is set to a name of a second displayfeature. At block 1010, a reference to the name of the pointer isdetected in a portion of program instructions defining the first displayfeature. The identifier of a first display feature is then bound to anidentifier of the pointer and to an identifier of the second feature inthe central registry of the search system at block 1015. In one or moreembodiments, binding of the system identifier of the first displayfeature to the identifiers of the pointer and second display feature maybe performed by one or more software components (e.g., engines)comprised in the search system.

The first feature is registered (e.g., in the event detection module) toreceive events pertaining to the pointer or to the second displayfeature at block 1020. The first display feature is thereafter generatedat block 1025 such that the operation or presentation of the firstdisplay feature reflects a value of the second display feature (e.g.,the first display feature is a child of the second display feature). Insome instances, process 1000 further includes notifying the firstdisplay feature of the pointer definition. Even when no such eventoccurred after the first display feature was registered to receive suchevents, the notification can nonetheless be sent such that the firstdisplay feature can reflect the current pointer setting. As before, insome instances, a modified set of program instructions for the firstdisplay feature can be generated that replaces a pointer reference withprogram code of the second display feature, whereas in some instances,no such modification is necessary.

According to one or more embodiments, at least part of the order of theblocks in process 900 and 1000 reflects an actual order. That is,process 900 can illustrate a situation where the first display featurereferences a pointer prior to it being defined, and process 1000illustrates a situation where the pointer is defined prior to the firstdisplay feature referencing the pointer. The use of a central registryof dynamic pointers provides the flexibility to use either order, whichcan simplify the process and reduce error probabilities.

According to one or more embodiments, the first display feature can besubsequently modified based on a change to a bound second feature.According to such embodiments, a second feature is modified in thesearch system. The modification can be based, e.g., on a new datasubmission or result obtained responsive to automatic processing. Thecentral registry is notified that the change occurred, while thenotification itself may or may not include additional details as to whattype of change occurred or which entity initiated the change.

Because the first display feature was registered to receivenotifications of events pertaining to the second display feature, thefirst display feature is notified of the change occurrence. Thisnotification may or may not include additional details as to what typeof change occurred. The first display feature is then generated suchthat the operation or presentation of the first display feature reflectsa value of the modified second display feature.

Embodiments of the present disclosure—through the use of dynamicpointers and a central registry—allow developers and data managers toeasily adjust the presentation and exploration of a first displayfeature readily by shifting a pointer definition, referencing a newfeature, or allowing the search system to automatically process updatesof other feature updates.

Dynamic referencing using dynamic pointers may also be implemented usingdesignated software modules (engines) to manage any one or more of theprogram code, display features, pointers, mappings, and events asdescribed in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,756,614 B2, entitled“CENTRAL REGISTRY FOR BINDING FEATURES USING DYNAMIC POINTERS”, issued17 June, 2014, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entiretyfor all purposes.

2.8.2. Iterative Visualization

As described above with respect to FIG. 6, an IDE (or REPL) executing ona computing device (e.g., a client device) includes an interface withboth a graphical user interface that allows users to submit queries asuser input, and a display region that displays the graphicalrepresentations of query result information. According to one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure, the interface is implemented as alinear, integrated graphical user interface that contains a viewablehistory of submitted queries and corresponding visualizations ofresultant information iteratively, and in chronological order. FIGS.11A-11C depict an example interface developed over multiple queries.FIG. 11A thus represents an example interface after a first query issubmitted and a first visualization of query result information isgenerated and presented, with FIGS. 11B and 11C representing the exampleinterface after a corresponding number of subsequent queries have beensubmitted and search results have been visualized.

As presented in FIGS. 11A-11B, a first exemplary query 1100(“index=*sourcetype=*access*|top url|table*”) is submitted by the useraccording to a syntax (e.g., a query language). In one or moreembodiments, each query includes at least three elements: 1) an elementthat designate the data set or data sets to be searched, 2) an elementthat identifies the data field or event of interest, and 3) an elementcorresponding to display parameters of the desired visualization. Asdepicted in FIGS. 11A-11C, each query submitted includes the threeelements separated by a predefined operator (e.g., “ ”). The first query1100 thus indicates the top (i.e., most frequent) web addresses (“url”)in the data set (accessing the source) presented as a table. Accordingto one or more embodiments, unless specified in the query, query resultinformation with multiple elements may be capped to a default maximumnumber of results (e.g., 10).

Once submitted, a display of the query is statically positioned withrespect to the visualization of the query result information 1102generated by the system in response to the submitted query, therebyallowing the user to view not only the data requested, but the request(query) itself. As depicted in FIG. 11A, query result information 1102displays the information conforming to the data fields specified in thequery (e.g., most common url), formatted as defined by the query (as atable).

As depicted in FIG. 11B, a second query 1104 is submitted that requeststhe data corresponding to an IP address of clients accessing the dataset in tabular form ((“index=*sourcetype=*access*|top clientip|table*”).According to one or more embodiments, a user is able to submitadditional queries (e.g., second query 1104) directly following thedisplay of the visualization of the query result information from thepreceding query. Once submitted, the graphical presentation 1106 of thesecond query is again statically positioned relative to other queriesand query result visualizations in the display, and the visualization ofthe second query result information is displayed likewise immediatelyfollowing the submitted second query.

As depicted in FIG. 11B, queries and query result visualization aregraphically presented iteratively, in chronologic sequence, therebypreserving a history of search data exploration for the user toreference quickly and efficiently, without re-running previouslysubmitted queries or creating additional instances of an IDE or datareport interface.

According to one or more embodiments, the second query 1104 may includea dynamic reference to the first query 1100. Under these circumstances,the IDE interface interprets the second query 1104 as concatenating theuser input of the second query 1104 with that of the first query 1100.The corresponding visualization (1106) of the second query thereaftercombines the result information obtained from processing both the first(1100) and second (1104) search queries. In one or more embodiments, thevisualization applies display parameters specified in the second searchquery to generate the visualization of the combination of the first andsecond query result information. According to further embodiments, thisreferencing is performed automatically, without including the originalsearch string used to generate the first query 1100 in the search stringbeing used to generate the second query 1104.

When the display of the history of submitted queries and resultingvisualizations of resulting query information exceeds the viewable areaof the display interface, a contiguous portion of the history may bedisplayed advantageously in an adjustable viewing area. In one or moreembodiments, the default viewable area corresponds to the most recentsubmitted query and corresponding query result visualization. FIG. 11Cdepicts the example interface of FIGS. 11A and 11B after a third,fourth, and fifth query (1108, 1112, 1116) and resultant query resultvisualizations (1110, 1114, 1118) are displayed in the interface. Sincethe total viewable area corresponding to the history of the search dataexploration session exceeds the viewable display area, the most recentsubmitted queries and corresponding search result visualizations thatfit within the viewable display area are displayed by default.

As depicted in FIG. 11C, in addition to the third through fifth queriesand corresponding query result visualizations, the viewable display areaincludes only the second query result visualization, and not the secondquery, nor either of the first query or first query resultvisualization. To refer back to the omitted graphical information, auser is able to define the area of interest in the display and adjustthe portion of the search history being viewed as a moving window, byscrolling in reverse-chronologic order (e.g., with a mouse or other userinput device), or directly viewing, via user actuation in a position ona scroll bar.

According to one or more embodiments, one or more query resultvisualizations may dynamically reference previously submitted queries.When a visualization of a referenced query result information is updated(e.g., via user input supplied through the IDE or other instances of theIDE executing in other client computing devices), the visualization ofthe dynamically referencing query result information is automaticallyre-generated (using dynamic pointers, as described above) to reflect theupdated information and the previous visualization is replaced with thenewly generated visualization. In one or more further embodiments,updating of visualizations in response to updated referenced resultinformation used to compute or generate visualizations of previouslysubmitted queries is performed even when the visualization is notincluded in the current viewable area. According to alternateembodiments, updating of visualizations is performed only for thevisualizations displayed in the current viewable area of the IDEinterface.

By combining iterative, persistent presentation of a query and searchresult visualization history with dynamic references to continuouslystreamed raw data in a search system, an interactive interface isprovided that provides users and developers the heretofore unprecedentedand advantageous ability to effectively and intuitively view, compare,and explore data points of interest in search data using a querylanguage.

2.9. Data Models

A data model is a hierarchically structured search-time mapping ofsemantic knowledge about one or more data sets. It encodes the domainknowledge necessary to build a variety of specialized searches of thosedata sets. Those searches, in turn, can be used to generate reports.

A data model is composed of one or more “objects” (or “data modelobjects”) that define or otherwise correspond to a specific set of data.

Objects in data models can be arranged hierarchically in parent/childrelationships. Each child object represents a subset of the data setcovered by its parent object. The top-level objects in data models arecollectively referred to as “root objects.”

Child objects have inheritance. Data model objects are defined bycharacteristics that mostly break down into constraints and attributes.Child objects inherit constraints and attributes from their parentobjects and have additional constraints and attributes of their own.Child objects provide a way of filtering events from parent objects.Because a child object always provides an additional constraint inaddition to the constraints it has inherited from its parent object, thedata set it represents is always a subset of the data set that itsparent represents.

For example, a first data model object may define a broad set of datapertaining to e-mail activity generally, and another data model objectmay define specific data sets within the broad data set, such as asubset of the e-mail data pertaining specifically to e-mails sent.Examples of data models can include electronic mail, authentication,databases, intrusion detection, malware, application state, alerts,compute inventory, network sessions, network traffic, performance,audits, updates, vulnerabilities, etc. Data models and their objects canbe designed by knowledge managers in an organization, and they canenable downstream users to quickly focus on a specific set of data. Forexample, a user can simply select an “e-mail activity” data model objectto access a data set relating to e-mails generally (e.g., sent orreceived), or select an “e-mails sent” data model object (or datasub-model object) to access a data set relating to e-mails sent.

A data model object may be defined by (1) a set of search constraints,and (2) a set of fields. Thus, a data model object can be used toquickly search data to identify a set of events and to identify a set offields to be associated with the set of events. For example, an “e-mailssent” data model object may specify a search for events relating toe-mails that have been sent, and specify a set of fields that areassociated with the events. Thus, a user can retrieve and use the“e-mails sent” data model object to quickly search source data forevents relating to sent e-mails, and may be provided with a listing ofthe set of fields relevant to the events in a user interface screen.

A child of the parent data model may be defined by a search (typically anarrower search) that produces a subset of the events that would beproduced by the parent data model's search. The child's set of fieldscan include a subset of the set of fields of the parent data model oradditional fields. Data model objects that reference the subsets can bearranged in a hierarchical manner, so that child subsets of events areproper subsets of their parents. A user iteratively applies a modeldevelopment tool (not shown in Fig.) to prepare a query that defines asubset of events and assigns an object name to that subset. A childsubset is created by further limiting a query that generated a parentsubset. A late-binding schema of field extraction rules is associatedwith each object or subset in the data model.

Data definitions in associated schemas can be taken from the commoninformation model (CIM) or can be devised for a particular schema andoptionally added to the CIM. Child objects inherit fields from parentsand can include fields not present in parents. A model developer canselect fewer extraction rules than are available for the sourcesreturned by the query that defines events belonging to a model.Selecting a limited set of extraction rules can be a tool forsimplifying and focusing the data model, while allowing a userflexibility to explore the data subset. Development of a data model isfurther explained in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,788,525 and 8,788,526, bothentitled “DATA MODEL FOR MACHINE DATA FOR SEMANTIC SEARCH”, both issuedon 22 Jul. 2014, U.S. Pat. No. 8,983,994, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATAMODEL FOR SEARCHING MACHINE DATA”, issued on 17 Mar. 2015, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/611,232, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODELAPPLIED TO QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jan. 2015, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/815,884, entitled “GENERATION OF A DATA MODEL APPLIED TOOBJECT QUERIES”, filed on 31 Jul. 2015, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes. See, also,Knowledge Manager Manual, Build a Data Model, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3pp. 150-204 (Aug. 25, 2014).

A data model can also include reports. One or more report formats can beassociated with a particular data model and be made available to runagainst the data model. A user can use child objects to design reportswith object data sets that already have extraneous data pre-filteredout. In an embodiment, the data intake and query system 108 provides theuser with the ability to produce reports (e.g., a table, chart,visualization, etc.) without having to enter SPL, SQL, or other querylanguage terms into a search screen. Data models are used as the basisfor the search feature.

Data models may be selected in a report generation interface. The reportgenerator supports drag-and-drop organization of fields to be summarizedin a report. When a model is selected, the fields with availableextraction rules are made available for use in the report. The user mayrefine or filter search results to produce more precise reports. Theuser may select some fields for organizing the report and select otherfields for providing detail according to the report organization. Forexample, “region” and “salesperson” are fields used for organizing thereport and sales data can be summarized (subtotaled and totaled) withinthis organization. The report generator allows the user to specify oneor more fields within events and apply statistical analysis on valuesextracted from the specified one or more fields. The report generatormay aggregate search results across sets of events and generatestatistics based on aggregated search results. Building reports usingthe report generation interface is further explained in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/503,335, entitled “GENERATING REPORTS FROMUNSTRUCTURED DATA”, filed on 30 Sep. 2014, and which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes, and in PivotManual, Splunk Enterprise 6.1.3 (Aug. 4, 2014). Data visualizations alsocan be generated in a variety of formats, by reference to the datamodel. Reports, data visualizations, and data model objects can be savedand associated with the data model for future use. The data model objectmay be used to perform searches of other data.

FIGS. 12A-12D, 17, and 18 illustrate a series of user interface screenswhere a user may select report generation options using data models. Thereport generation process may be driven by a predefined data modelobject, such as a data model object defined or saved via a reportingapplication or a data model object obtained from another source. A usercan load a saved data model object using a report editor. For example,the initial query and fields used to drive the report editor may beobtained from a data model object. The data model object that is used todrive a report generation process may define a search and a set offields. Upon loading of the data model object, the report generationprocess may enable a user to use the fields (e.g., the fields defined bythe data model object) to define criteria for a report (e.g., filters,split rows/columns, aggregates, etc.) and the search may be used toidentify events (e.g., to identify events responsive to the search) usedto generate the report. That is, for example, if a data model object isselected to drive a report editor, the graphical user interface of thereport editor may enable a user to define reporting criteria for thereport using the fields associated with the selected data model object,and the events used to generate the report may be constrained to theevents that match, or otherwise satisfy, the search constraints of theselected data model object.

The selection of a data model object for use in driving a reportgeneration may be facilitated by a data model object selectioninterface. FIG. 17 illustrates an example interactive data modelselection graphical user interface 1700 of a report editor that displaysa listing of available data models 1701. The user may select one of thedata models 1702.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example data model object selection graphicaluser interface 1800 that displays available data objects 1801 for theselected data object model 1702. The user may select one of thedisplayed data model objects 1802 for use in driving the reportgeneration process.

Once a data model object is selected by the user, a user interfacescreen 1200 shown in FIG. 12A may display an interactive listing ofautomatic field identification options 1201 based on the selected datamodel object. For example, a user may select one of the threeillustrated options (e.g., the “All Fields” option 1202, the “SelectedFields” option 1203, or the “Coverage” option (e.g., fields with atleast a specified % of coverage) 1204). If the user selects the “AllFields” option 1202, all of the fields identified from the events thatwere returned in response to an initial query may be selected. That is,for example, all of the fields of the identified data model objectfields may be selected. If the user selects the “Selected Fields” option1203, only the fields from the fields of the identified data modelobject fields that are selected by the user may be used. If the userselects the “Coverage” option 1204, only the fields of the identifieddata model object fields meeting a specified coverage criteria may beselected. A percent coverage may refer to the percentage of eventsreturned by the initial query that a given field appears in. Thus, forexample, if an object data set includes 10,000 events returned inresponse to an initial query, and the “avg_age” field appears in 854 ofthose 10,000 events, then the “avg_age” field would have a coverage of8.54% for that object data set. If, for example, the user selects the“Coverage” option and specifies a coverage value of 2%, only fieldshaving a coverage value equal to or greater than 2% may be selected. Thenumber of fields corresponding to each selectable option may bedisplayed in association with each option. For example, “97” displayednext to the “All Fields” option 1202 indicates that 97 fields will beselected if the “All Fields” option is selected. The “3” displayed nextto the “Selected Fields” option 1203 indicates that 3 of the 97 fieldswill be selected if the “Selected Fields” option is selected. The “49”displayed next to the “Coverage” option 1204 indicates that 49 of the 97fields (e.g., the 49 fields having a coverage of 2% or greater) will beselected if the “Coverage” option is selected. The number of fieldscorresponding to the “Coverage” option may be dynamically updated basedon the specified percent of coverage.

FIG. 12B illustrates an example graphical user interface screen (alsocalled the pivot interface) 1205 displaying the reporting application's“Report Editor” page. The screen may display interactive elements fordefining various elements of a report. For example, the page includes a“Filters” element 1206, a “Split Rows” element 1207, a “Split Columns”element 1208, and a “Column Values” element 1209. The page may include alist of search results 1211. In this example, the Split Rows element1207 is expanded, revealing a listing of fields 1210 that can be used todefine additional criteria (e.g., reporting criteria). The listing offields 1210 may correspond to the selected fields (attributes). That is,the listing of fields 1210 may list only the fields previously selected,either automatically or manually by a user. FIG. 12C illustrates aformatting dialogue 1212 that may be displayed upon selecting a fieldfrom the listing of fields 1210. The dialogue can be used to format thedisplay of the results of the selection (e.g., label the column to bedisplayed as “component”).

FIG. 12D illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 1205including a table of results 1213 based on the selected criteriaincluding splitting the rows by the “component” field. A column 1214having an associated count for each component listed in the table may bedisplayed that indicates an aggregate count of the number of times thatthe particular field-value pair (e.g., the value in a row) occurs in theset of events responsive to the initial query.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example graphical user interface screen 1900 thatallows the user to filter search results and to perform statisticalanalysis on values extracted from specific fields in the set of events.In this example, the top ten product names ranked by price are selectedas a filter 1901 that causes the display of the ten most popularproducts sorted by price. Each row is displayed by product name andprice 1902. This results in each product displayed in a column labeled“product name” along with an associated price in a column labeled“price” 1906. Statistical analysis of other fields in the eventsassociated with the ten most popular products have been specified ascolumn values 1903. A count of the number of successful purchases foreach product is displayed in column 1904. This statistics may beproduced by filtering the search results by the product name, findingall occurrences of a successful purchase in a field within the eventsand generating a total of the number of occurrences. A sum of the totalsales is displayed in column 1905, which is a result of themultiplication of the price and the number of successful purchases foreach product.

The reporting application allows the user to create graphicalvisualizations of the statistics generated for a report. For example,FIG. 20 illustrates an example graphical user interface 2000 thatdisplays a set of components and associated statistics 2001. Thereporting application allows the user to select a visualization of thestatistics in a graph (e.g., bar chart, scatter plot, area chart, linechart, pie chart, radial gauge, marker gauge, filler gauge, etc.). FIG.21 illustrates an example of a bar chart visualization 2100 of an aspectof the statistical data 2001. FIG. 22 illustrates a scatter plotvisualization 2200 of an aspect of the statistical data 2001.

2.10. Acceleration Technique

The above-described system provides significant flexibility by enablinga user to analyze massive quantities of minimally processed data “on thefly” at search time instead of storing pre-specified portions of thedata in a database at ingestion time. This flexibility enables a user tosee valuable insights, correlate data, and perform subsequent queries toexamine interesting aspects of the data that may not have been apparentat ingestion time.

However, performing extraction and analysis operations at search timecan involve a large amount of data and require a large number ofcomputational operations, which can cause delays in processing thequeries. Advantageously, SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system employs a number ofunique acceleration techniques that have been developed to speed upanalysis operations performed at search time. These techniques include:(1) performing search operations in parallel across multiple indexers;(2) using a keyword index; (3) using a high performance analytics store;and (4) accelerating the process of generating reports. These noveltechniques are described in more detail below.

2.10.1. Aggregation Technique

To facilitate faster query processing, a query can be structured suchthat multiple indexers perform the query in parallel, while aggregationof search results from the multiple indexers is performed locally at thesearch head. For example, FIG. 13 illustrates how a query 1302 receivedfrom a client at a search head 210 can split into two phases, including:(1) subtasks 1304 (e.g., data retrieval or simple filtering) that may beperformed in parallel by indexers 1306 for execution, and (2) a searchresults aggregation operation 1306 to be executed by the search headwhen the results are ultimately collected from the indexers.

During operation, upon receiving query 1302, a search head 210determines that a portion of the operations involved with the query maybe performed locally by the search head. The search head modifies query1302 by substituting “stats” (create aggregate statistics over resultssets received from the indexers at the search head) with “prestats”(create statistics by the indexer from local results set) to producequery 1304, and then distributes query 1304 to distributed indexers,which are also referred to as “search peers.” Note that queries maygenerally specify search criteria or operations to be performed onevents that meet the search criteria. Queries may also specify fieldnames, as well as search criteria for the values in the fields oroperations to be performed on the values in the fields. Moreover, thesearch head may distribute the full query to the search peers asillustrated in FIG. 4, or may alternatively distribute a modifiedversion (e.g., a more restricted version) of the query to the searchpeers. In this example, the indexers are responsible for producing theresults and sending them to the search head. After the indexers returnthe results to the search head, the search head aggregates the receivedresults 1306 to form a single search result set. By executing the queryin this manner, the system effectively distributes the computationaloperations across the indexers while minimizing data transfers.

2.10.2. Keyword Index

As described above with reference to the flow charts in FIG. 3 and FIG.4, data intake and query system 108 can construct and maintain one ormore keyword indices to quickly identify events containing specifickeywords. This technique can greatly speed up the processing of queriesinvolving specific keywords. As mentioned above, to build a keywordindex, an indexer first identifies a set of keywords. Then, the indexerincludes the identified keywords in an index, which associates eachstored keyword with references to events containing that keyword, or tolocations within events where that keyword is located. When an indexersubsequently receives a keyword-based query, the indexer can access thekeyword index to quickly identify events containing the keyword.

2.10.3. High Performance Analytics Store

To speed up certain types of queries, some embodiments of system 108create a high performance analytics store, which is referred to as a“summarization table,” that contains entries for specific field-valuepairs. Each of these entries keeps track of instances of a specificvalue in a specific field in the event data and includes references toevents containing the specific value in the specific field. For example,an example entry in a summarization table can keep track of occurrencesof the value “94107” in a “ZIP code” field of a set of events and theentry includes references to all of the events that contain the value“94107” in the ZIP code field. This optimization technique enables thesystem to quickly process queries that seek to determine how many eventshave a particular value for a particular field. To this end, the systemcan examine the entry in the summarization table to count instances ofthe specific value in the field without having to go through theindividual events or perform data extractions at search time. Also, ifthe system needs to process all events that have a specific field-valuecombination, the system can use the references in the summarizationtable entry to directly access the events to extract further informationwithout having to search all of the events to find the specificfield-value combination at search time.

In some embodiments, the system maintains a separate summarization tablefor each of the above-described time-specific buckets that stores eventsfor a specific time range. A bucket-specific summarization tableincludes entries for specific field-value combinations that occur inevents in the specific bucket. Alternatively, the system can maintain aseparate summarization table for each indexer. The indexer-specificsummarization table includes entries for the events in a data store thatare managed by the specific indexer. Indexer-specific summarizationtables may also be bucket-specific.

The summarization table can be populated by running a periodic querythat scans a set of events to find instances of a specific field-valuecombination, or alternatively instances of all field-value combinationsfor a specific field. A periodic query can be initiated by a user, orcan be scheduled to occur automatically at specific time intervals. Aperiodic query can also be automatically launched in response to a querythat asks for a specific field-value combination.

In some cases, when the summarization tables may not cover all of theevents that are relevant to a query, the system can use thesummarization tables to obtain partial results for the events that arecovered by summarization tables, but may also have to search throughother events that are not covered by the summarization tables to produceadditional results. These additional results can then be combined withthe partial results to produce a final set of results for the query. Thesummarization table and associated techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,682,925, entitled “DISTRIBUTED HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE”, issued on 25 Mar. 2014, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/170,159, entitled “SUPPLEMENTING A HIGHPERFORMANCE ANALYTICS STORE WITH EVALUATION OF INDIVIDUAL EVENTS TORESPOND TO AN EVENT QUERY”, filed on 31 Jan. 2014, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/815,973, entitled “STORAGE MEDIUM AND CONTROLDEVICE”, filed on 21 Feb. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.10.4. Accelerating Report Generation

In some embodiments, a data server system such as the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsystem can accelerate the process of periodically generating updatedreports based on query results. To accelerate this process, asummarization engine automatically examines the query to determinewhether generation of updated reports can be accelerated by creatingintermediate summaries. If reports can be accelerated, the summarizationengine periodically generates a summary covering data obtained during alatest non-overlapping time period. For example, where the query seeksevents meeting a specified criteria, a summary for the time periodincludes only events within the time period that meet the specifiedcriteria. Similarly, if the query seeks statistics calculated from theevents, such as the number of events that match the specified criteria,then the summary for the time period includes the number of events inthe period that match the specified criteria.

In addition to the creation of the summaries, the summarization engineschedules the periodic updating of the report associated with the query.During each scheduled report update, the query engine determines whetherintermediate summaries have been generated covering portions of the timeperiod covered by the report update. If so, then the report is generatedbased on the information contained in the summaries. Also, if additionalevent data has been received and has not yet been summarized, and isrequired to generate the complete report, the query can be run on thisadditional event data. Then, the results returned by this query on theadditional event data, along with the partial results obtained from theintermediate summaries, can be combined to generate the updated report.This process is repeated each time the report is updated. Alternatively,if the system stores events in buckets covering specific time ranges,then the summaries can be generated on a bucket-by-bucket basis. Notethat producing intermediate summaries can save the work involved inre-running the query for previous time periods, so advantageously onlythe newer event data needs to be processed while generating an updatedreport. These report acceleration techniques are described in moredetail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,589,403, entitled “COMPRESSED JOURNALING INEVENT TRACKING FILES FOR METADATA RECOVERY AND REPLICATION”, issued on19 Nov. 2013, U.S. Pat. No. 8,412,696, entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING ANDREPORTING”, issued on 2 Apr. 2011, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,589,375 and8,589,432, both also entitled “REAL TIME SEARCHING AND REPORTING”, bothissued on 19 Nov. 2013, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

2.11. Security Features

The SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides various schemas, dashboards andvisualizations that simplify developers' task to create applicationswith additional capabilities. One such application is the SPLUNK® APPFOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY, which performs monitoring and alertingoperations and includes analytics to facilitate identifying both knownand unknown security threats based on large volumes of data stored bythe SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system. SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITYprovides the security practitioner with visibility intosecurity-relevant threats found in the enterprise infrastructure bycapturing, monitoring, and reporting on data from enterprise securitydevices, systems, and applications. Through the use of SPLUNK®ENTERPRISE searching and reporting capabilities, SPLUNK® APP FORENTERPRISE SECURITY provides a top-down and bottom-up view of anorganization's security posture.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY leverages SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEsearch-time normalization techniques, saved searches, and correlationsearches to provide visibility into security-relevant threats andactivity and generate notable events for tracking. The App enables thesecurity practitioner to investigate and explore the data to find new orunknown threats that do not follow signature-based patterns.

Conventional Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systemsthat lack the infrastructure to effectively store and analyze largevolumes of security-related data. Traditional SIEM systems typically usefixed schemas to extract data from pre-defined security-related fieldsat data ingestion time and storing the extracted data in a relationaldatabase. This traditional data extraction process (and associatedreduction in data size) that occurs at data ingestion time inevitablyhampers future incident investigations that may need original data todetermine the root cause of a security issue, or to detect the onset ofan impending security threat.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY system stores largevolumes of minimally processed security-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time when a live securitythreat is being investigated. To facilitate this data retrieval process,the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides pre-specified schemasfor extracting relevant values from the different types ofsecurity-related event data and enables a user to define such schemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY can process many types ofsecurity-related information. In general, this security-relatedinformation can include any information that can be used to identifysecurity threats. For example, the security-related information caninclude network-related information, such as IP addresses, domain names,asset identifiers, network traffic volume, uniform resource locatorstrings, and source addresses. The process of detecting security threatsfor network-related information is further described in U.S. Pat. No.8,826,434, entitled “SECURITY THREAT DETECTION BASED ON INDICATIONS INBIG DATA OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, issued on 2 Sep. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,252, entitled “INVESTIGATIVE ANDDYNAMIC DETECTION OF POTENTIAL SECURITY-THREAT INDICATORS FROM EVENTS INBIG DATA”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/445,018, entitled “GRAPHIC DISPLAY OF SECURITY THREATS BASED ONINDICATIONS OF ACCESS TO NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul.2014, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/445,023, entitled “SECURITYTHREAT DETECTION OF NEWLY REGISTERED DOMAINS”, filed on 28 Jul. 2014,U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/815,971, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME ACCESSES”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/815,972, entitled “SECURITY THREATDETECTION USING DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS”, filed on 1 Aug. 2015, eachof which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes. Security-related information can also include malwareinfection data and system configuration information, as well as accesscontrol information, such as login/logout information and access failurenotifications. The security-related information can originate fromvarious sources within a data center, such as hosts, virtual machines,storage devices and sensors. The security-related information can alsooriginate from various sources in a network, such as routers, switches,email servers, proxy servers, gateways, firewalls andintrusion-detection systems.

During operation, the SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY facilitatesdetecting “notable events” that are likely to indicate a securitythreat. These notable events can be detected in a number of ways: (1) auser can notice a correlation in the data and can manually identify acorresponding group of one or more events as “notable;” or (2) a usercan define a “correlation search” specifying criteria for a notableevent, and every time one or more events satisfy the criteria, theapplication can indicate that the one or more events are notable. A usercan alternatively select a pre-defined correlation search provided bythe application. Note that correlation searches can be run continuouslyor at regular intervals (e.g., every hour) to search for notable events.Upon detection, notable events can be stored in a dedicated “notableevents index,” which can be subsequently accessed to generate variousvisualizations containing security-related information. Also, alerts canbe generated to notify system operators when important notable eventsare discovered.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR ENTERPRISE SECURITY provides various visualizationsto aid in discovering security threats, such as a “key indicators view”that enables a user to view security metrics, such as counts ofdifferent types of notable events. For example, FIG. 14A illustrates anexample key indicators view 1400 that comprises a dashboard, which candisplay a value 1401, for various security-related metrics, such asmalware infections 1402. It can also display a change in a metric value1403, which indicates that the number of malware infections increased by63 during the preceding interval. Key indicators view 1400 additionallydisplays a histogram panel 1404 that displays a histogram of notableevents organized by urgency values, and a histogram of notable eventsorganized by time intervals. This key indicators view is described infurther detail in pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/956,338,entitled “KEY INDICATORS VIEW”, filed on 31 Jul. 2013, and which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

These visualizations can also include an “incident review dashboard”that enables a user to view and act on “notable events.” These notableevents can include: (1) a single event of high importance, such as anyactivity from a known web attacker; or (2) multiple events thatcollectively warrant review, such as a large number of authenticationfailures on a host followed by a successful authentication. For example,FIG. 14B illustrates an example incident review dashboard 1410 thatincludes a set of incident attribute fields 1411 that, for example,enables a user to specify a time range field 1412 for the displayedevents. It also includes a timeline 1413 that graphically illustratesthe number of incidents that occurred in time intervals over theselected time range. It additionally displays an events list 1414 thatenables a user to view a list of all of the notable events that matchthe criteria in the incident attributes fields 1411. To facilitateidentifying patterns among the notable events, each notable event can beassociated with an urgency value (e.g., low, medium, high, critical),which is indicated in the incident review dashboard. The urgency valuefor a detected event can be determined based on the severity of theevent and the priority of the system component associated with theevent.

2.12. Data Center Monitoring

As mentioned above, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform provides variousfeatures that simplify the developers' task to create variousapplications. One such application is SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® thatprovides operational visibility into granular performance metrics, logs,tasks and events, and topology from hosts, virtual machines and virtualcenters. It empowers administrators with an accurate real-time pictureof the health of the environment, proactively identifying performanceand capacity bottlenecks.

Conventional data-center-monitoring systems lack the infrastructure toeffectively store and analyze large volumes of machine-generated data,such as performance information and log data obtained from the datacenter. In conventional data-center-monitoring systems,machine-generated data is typically pre-processed prior to being stored,for example, by extracting pre-specified data items and storing them ina database to facilitate subsequent retrieval and analysis at searchtime. However, the rest of the data is not saved and discarded duringpre-processing.

In contrast, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® stores large volumes ofminimally processed machine data, such as performance information andlog data, at ingestion time for later retrieval and analysis at searchtime when a live performance issue is being investigated. In addition todata obtained from various log files, this performance-relatedinformation can include values for performance metrics obtained throughan application programming interface (API) provided as part of thevSphere Hypervisor™ system distributed by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto,Calif. For example, these performance metrics can include: (1)CPU-related performance metrics; (2) disk-related performance metrics;(3) memory-related performance metrics; (4) network-related performancemetrics; (5) energy-usage statistics; (6) data-traffic-relatedperformance metrics; (7) overall system availability performancemetrics; (8) cluster-related performance metrics; and (9) virtualmachine performance statistics. Such performance metrics are describedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled “CORRELATIONFOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCE METRICS OFCOMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOG DATA FROMTHAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan. 2014, andwhich is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for allpurposes.

To facilitate retrieving information of interest from performance dataand log files, the SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® provides pre-specifiedschemas for extracting relevant values from different types ofperformance-related event data, and also enables a user to define suchschemas.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® additionally provides various visualizationsto facilitate detecting and diagnosing the root cause of performanceproblems. For example, one such visualization is a “proactive monitoringtree” that enables a user to easily view and understand relationshipsamong various factors that affect the performance of a hierarchicallystructured computing system. This proactive monitoring tree enables auser to easily navigate the hierarchy by selectively expanding nodesrepresenting various entities (e.g., virtual centers or computingclusters) to view performance information for lower-level nodesassociated with lower-level entities (e.g., virtual machines or hostsystems). Example node-expansion operations are illustrated in FIG. 14C,wherein nodes 1433 and 1434 are selectively expanded. Note that nodes1431-1439 can be displayed using different patterns or colors torepresent different performance states, such as a critical state, awarning state, a normal state or an unknown/offline state. The ease ofnavigation provided by selective expansion in combination with theassociated performance-state information enables a user to quicklydiagnose the root cause of a performance problem. The proactivemonitoring tree is described in further detail in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/253,490, entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORING TREEWITH SEVERITY STATE SORTING”, filed on 15 Apr. 2014, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/812,948, also entitled “PROACTIVE MONITORINGTREE WITH SEVERITY STATE SORTING”, filed on 29 Jul. 2015, each of whichis hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

The SPLUNK® APP FOR VMWARE® also provides a user interface that enablesa user to select a specific time range and then view heterogeneous datacomprising events, log data, and associated performance metrics for theselected time range. For example, the screen illustrated in FIG. 14Ddisplays a listing of recent “tasks and events” and a listing of recent“log entries” for a selected time range above a performance-metric graphfor “average CPU core utilization” for the selected time range. Notethat a user is able to operate pull-down menus 1442 to selectivelydisplay different performance metric graphs for the selected time range.This enables the user to correlate trends in the performance-metricgraph with corresponding event and log data to quickly determine theroot cause of a performance problem. This user interface is described inmore detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/167,316, entitled“CORRELATION FOR USER-SELECTED TIME RANGES OF VALUES FOR PERFORMANCEMETRICS OF COMPONENTS IN AN INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT WITH LOGDATA FROM THAT INFORMATION-TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENT”, filed on 29 Jan.2014, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety forall purposes.

2.13. Cloud-Based System Overview

The example data intake and query system 108 described in reference toFIG. 2 comprises several system components, including one or moreforwarders, indexers, and search heads. In some environments, a user ofa data intake and query system 108 may install and configure, oncomputing devices owned and operated by the user, one or more softwareapplications that implement some or all of these system components. Forexample, a user may install a software application on server computersowned by the user and configure each server to operate as one or more ofa forwarder, an indexer, a search head, etc. This arrangement generallymay be referred to as an “on-premises” solution. That is, the system 108is installed and operates on computing devices directly controlled bythe user of the system. Some users may prefer an on-premises solutionbecause it may provide a greater level of control over the configurationof certain aspects of the system (e.g., security, privacy, standards,controls, etc.). However, other users may instead prefer an arrangementin which the user is not directly responsible for providing and managingthe computing devices upon which various components of system 108operate.

In one embodiment, to provide an alternative to an entirely on-premisesenvironment for system 108, one or more of the components of a dataintake and query system instead may be provided as a cloud-basedservice. In this context, a cloud-based service refers to a servicehosted by one more computing resources that are accessible to end usersover a network, for example, by using a web browser or other applicationon a client device to interface with the remote computing resources. Forexample, a service provider may provide a cloud-based data intake andquery system by managing computing resources configured to implementvarious aspects of the system (e.g., forwarders, indexers, search heads,etc.) and by providing access to the system to end users via a network.Typically, a user may pay a subscription or other fee to use such aservice. Each subscribing user of the cloud-based service may beprovided with an account that enables the user to configure a customizedcloud-based system based on the user's preferences.

FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of an example cloud-based dataintake and query system. Similar to the system of FIG. 2, the networkedcomputer system 1500 includes input data sources 202 and forwarders 204.These input data sources and forwarders may be in a subscriber's privatecomputing environment. Alternatively, they might be directly managed bythe service provider as part of the cloud service. In the example system1500, one or more forwarders 204 and client devices 1502 are coupled toa cloud-based data intake and query system 1506 via one or more networks1504. Network 1504 broadly represents one or more LANs, WANs, cellularnetworks, intranetworks, internetworks, etc., using any of wired,wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and may includethe public Internet, and is used by client devices 1502 and forwarders204 to access the system 1506. Similar to the system of 108, each of theforwarders 204 may be configured to receive data from an input sourceand to forward the data to other components of the system 1506 forfurther processing.

In an embodiment, a cloud-based data intake and query system 1506 maycomprise a plurality of system instances 1508. In general, each systeminstance 1508 may include one or more computing resources managed by aprovider of the cloud-based system 1506 made available to a particularsubscriber. The computing resources comprising a system instance 1508may, for example, include one or more servers or other devicesconfigured to implement one or more forwarders, indexers, search heads,and other components of a data intake and query system, similar tosystem 108. As indicated above, a subscriber may use a web browser orother application of a client device 1502 to access a web portal orother interface that enables the subscriber to configure an instance1508.

Providing a data intake and query system as described in reference tosystem 108 as a cloud-based service presents a number of challenges.Each of the components of a system 108 (e.g., forwarders, indexers andsearch heads) may at times refer to various configuration files storedlocally at each component. These configuration files typically mayinvolve some level of user configuration to accommodate particular typesof data a user desires to analyze and to account for other userpreferences. However, in a cloud-based service context, users typicallymay not have direct access to the underlying computing resourcesimplementing the various system components (e.g., the computingresources comprising each system instance 1508) and may desire to makesuch configurations indirectly, for example, using one or more web-basedinterfaces. Thus, the techniques and systems described herein forproviding user interfaces that enable a user to configure source typedefinitions are applicable to both on-premises and cloud-based servicecontexts, or some combination thereof (e.g., a hybrid system where bothan on-premises environment such as SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE and a cloud-basedenvironment such as SPLUNK CLOUD™ are centrally visible).

2.14. Searching Externally Archived Data

FIG. 16 shows a block diagram of an example of a data intake and querysystem 108 that provides transparent search facilities for data systemsthat are external to the data intake and query system. Such facilitiesare available in the HUNK® system provided by Splunk Inc. of SanFrancisco, Calif. HUNK® represents an analytics platform that enablesbusiness and IT teams to rapidly explore, analyze, and visualize data inHadoop and NoSQL data stores.

The search head 210 of the data intake and query system receives searchrequests from one or more client devices 1604 over network connections1620. As discussed above, the data intake and query system 108 mayreside in an enterprise location, in the cloud, etc. FIG. 16 illustratesthat multiple client devices 1604 a, 1604 b, . . . , 1604 n maycommunicate with the data intake and query system 108. The clientdevices 1604 may communicate with the data intake and query system usinga variety of connections. For example, one client device in FIG. 16 isillustrated as communicating over an Internet (Web) protocol, anotherclient device is illustrated as communicating via a command lineinterface, and another client device is illustrated as communicating viaa system developer kit (SDK).

The search head 210 analyzes the received search request to identifyrequest parameters. If a search request received from one of the clientdevices 1604 references an index maintained by the data intake and querysystem, then the search head 210 connects to one or more indexers 206 ofthe data intake and query system for the index referenced in the requestparameters. That is, if the request parameters of the search requestreference an index, then the search head accesses the data in the indexvia the indexer. The data intake and query system 108 may include one ormore indexers 206, depending on system access resources andrequirements. As described further below, the indexers 206 retrieve datafrom their respective local data stores 208 as specified in the searchrequest. The indexers and their respective data stores can comprise oneor more storage devices and typically reside on the same system, thoughthey may be connected via a local network connection.

If the request parameters of the received search request reference anexternal data collection, which is not accessible to the indexers 206 orunder the management of the data intake and query system, then thesearch head 210 can access the external data collection through anExternal Result Provider (ERP) process 1610. An external data collectionmay be referred to as a “virtual index” (plural, “virtual indices”). AnERP process provides an interface through which the search head 210 mayaccess virtual indices.

Thus, a search reference to an index of the system relates to a locallystored and managed data collection. In contrast, a search reference to avirtual index relates to an externally stored and managed datacollection, which the search head may access through one or more ERPprocesses 1610, 1612. FIG. 16 shows two ERP processes 1610, 1612 thatconnect to respective remote (external) virtual indices, which areindicated as a Hadoop or another system 1614 (e.g., Amazon S3, AmazonEMR, other Hadoop Compatible File Systems (HCFS), etc.) and a relationaldatabase management system (RDBMS) 1616. Other virtual indices mayinclude other file organizations and protocols, such as Structured QueryLanguage (SQL) and the like. The ellipses between the ERP processes1610, 1612 indicate optional additional ERP processes of the data intakeand query system 108. An ERP process may be a computer process that isinitiated or spawned by the search head 210 and is executed by thesearch data intake and query system 108. Alternatively or additionally,an ERP process may be a process spawned by the search head 210 on thesame or different host system as the search head 210 resides.

The search head 210 may spawn a single ERP process in response tomultiple virtual indices referenced in a search request, or the searchhead may spawn different ERP processes for different virtual indices.Generally, virtual indices that share common data configurations orprotocols may share ERP processes. For example, all query references toa Hadoop file system may be processed by the same ERP process, if theERP process is suitably configured. Likewise, all query references to anSQL database may be processed by the same ERP process. In addition, thesearch head may provide a common ERP process for common external datasource types (e.g., a common vendor may utilize a common ERP process,even if the vendor includes different data storage system types, such asHadoop and SQL). Common indexing schemes also may be handled by commonERP processes, such as flat text files or Weblog files.

The search head 210 determines the number of ERP processes to beinitiated via the use of configuration parameters that are included in asearch request message. Generally, there is a one-to-many relationshipbetween an external results provider “family” and ERP processes. Thereis also a one-to-many relationship between an ERP process andcorresponding virtual indices that are referred to in a search request.For example, using RDBMS, assume two independent instances of such asystem by one vendor, such as one RDBMS for production and another RDBMSused for development. In such a situation, it is likely preferable (butoptional) to use two ERP processes to maintain the independent operationas between production and development data. Both of the ERPs, however,will belong to the same family, because the two RDBMS system types arefrom the same vendor.

The ERP processes 1610, 1612 receive a search request from the searchhead 210. The search head may optimize the received search request forexecution at the respective external virtual index. Alternatively, theERP process may receive a search request as a result of analysisperformed by the search head or by a different system process. The ERPprocesses 1610, 1612 can communicate with the search head 210 viaconventional input/output routines (e.g., standard in/standard out,etc.). In this way, the ERP process receives the search request from aclient device such that the search request may be efficiently executedat the corresponding external virtual index.

The ERP processes 1610, 1612 may be implemented as a process of the dataintake and query system. Each ERP process may be provided by the dataintake and query system, or may be provided by process or applicationproviders who are independent of the data intake and query system. Eachrespective ERP process may include an interface application installed ata computer of the external result provider that ensures propercommunication between the search support system and the external resultprovider. The ERP processes 1610, 1612 generate appropriate searchrequests in the protocol and syntax of the respective virtual indices1614, 1616, each of which corresponds to the search request received bythe search head 210. Upon receiving search results from theircorresponding virtual indices, the respective ERP process passes theresult to the search head 210, which may return or display the resultsor a processed set of results based on the returned results to therespective client device.

Client devices 1604 may communicate with the data intake and querysystem 108 through a network interface 1620, e.g., one or more LANs,WANs, cellular networks, intranetworks, or internetworks using any ofwired, wireless, terrestrial microwave, satellite links, etc., and mayinclude the public Internet.

The analytics platform utilizing the External Result Provider processdescribed in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,629, entitled “EXTERNALRESULT PROVIDED PROCESS FOR RETRIEVING DATA STORED USING A DIFFERENTCONFIGURATION OR PROTOCOL”, issued on 27 May 2014, U.S. Pat. No.8,738,587, entitled “PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST BY RETRIEVINGRESULTS FROM BOTH A NATIVE INDEX AND A VIRTUAL INDEX”, issued on 25 Jul.2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/266,832, entitled “PROCESSINGA SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST ACROSS DISPARATE DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS”, filedon 1 May 2014, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/449,144, entitled“PROCESSING A SYSTEM SEARCH REQUEST INCLUDING EXTERNAL DATA SOURCES”,filed on 31 Jul. 2014, each of which is hereby incorporated by referencein its entirety for all purposes.

2.14.1. ERP Process Features

The ERP processes described above may include two operation modes: astreaming mode and a reporting mode. The ERP processes can operate instreaming mode only, in reporting mode only, or in both modessimultaneously. Operating in both modes simultaneously is referred to asmixed mode operation. In a mixed mode operation, the ERP at some pointcan stop providing the search head with streaming results and onlyprovide reporting results thereafter, or the search head at some pointmay start ignoring streaming results it has been using and only usereporting results thereafter.

The streaming mode returns search results in real time, with minimalprocessing, in response to the search request. The reporting modeprovides results of a search request with processing of the searchresults prior to providing them to the requesting search head, which inturn provides results to the requesting client device. ERP operationwith such multiple modes provides greater performance flexibility withregard to report time, search latency, and resource utilization.

In a mixed mode operation, both streaming mode and reporting mode areoperating simultaneously. The streaming mode results (e.g., the raw dataobtained from the external data source) are provided to the search head,which can then process the results data (e.g., break the raw data intoevents, timestamp it, filter it, etc.) and integrate the results datawith the results data from other external data sources, or from datastores of the search head. The search head performs such processing andcan immediately start returning interim (streaming mode) results to theuser at the requesting client device; simultaneously, the search head iswaiting for the ERP process to process the data it is retrieving fromthe external data source as a result of the concurrently executingreporting mode.

In some instances, the ERP process initially operates in a mixed mode,such that the streaming mode operates to enable the ERP quickly toreturn interim results (e.g., some of the raw or unprocessed datanecessary to respond to a search request) to the search head, enablingthe search head to process the interim results and begin providing tothe client or search requester interim results that are responsive tothe query. Meanwhile, in this mixed mode, the ERP also operatesconcurrently in reporting mode, processing portions of raw data in amanner responsive to the query. Upon determining that it has resultsfrom the reporting mode available to return to the search head, the ERPmay halt processing in the mixed mode at that time (or some later time)by stopping the return of data in streaming mode to the search head andswitching to reporting mode only. The ERP at this point starts sendinginterim results in reporting mode to the search head, which in turn maythen present this processed data responsive to the search request to theclient or search requester. Typically the search head switches fromusing results from the ERP's streaming mode of operation to results fromthe ERP's reporting mode of operation when the higher bandwidth resultsfrom the reporting mode outstrip the amount of data processed by thesearch head in the]streaming mode of ERP operation.

A reporting mode may have a higher bandwidth because the ERP does nothave to spend time transferring data to the search head for processingall the raw data. In addition, the ERP may optionally direct anotherprocessor to do the processing.

The streaming mode of operation does not need to be stopped to gain thehigher bandwidth benefits of a reporting mode; the search head couldsimply stop using the streaming mode results—and start using thereporting mode results—when the bandwidth of the reporting mode hascaught up with or exceeded the amount of bandwidth provided by thestreaming mode. Thus, a variety of triggers and ways to accomplish asearch head's switch from using streaming mode results to usingreporting mode results may be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

The reporting mode can involve the ERP process (or an external system)performing event breaking, time stamping, filtering of events to matchthe query request, and calculating statistics on the results. The usercan request particular types of data, such as if the query itselfinvolves types of events, or the search request may ask for statisticson data, such as on events that meet the search request. In either case,the search head understands the query language used in the receivedquery request, which may be a proprietary language. One exemplary querylanguage is Splunk Processing Language (SPL) developed by the assigneeof the application, Splunk Inc. The search head typically understandshow to use that language to obtain data from the indexers, which storedata in a format used by the SPLUNK® Enterprise system.

The ERP processes support the search head, as the search head is notordinarily configured to understand the format in which data is storedin external data sources such as Hadoop or SQL data systems. Rather, theERP process performs that translation from the query submitted in thesearch support system's native format (e.g., SPL if SPLUNK® ENTERPRISEis used as the search support system) to a query request format thatwill be accepted by the corresponding external data system. The externaldata system typically stores data in a different format from that of thesearch support system's native index format, and it utilizes a differentquery language (e.g., SQL or MapReduce, rather than SPL or the like).

As noted, the ERP process can operate in the streaming mode alone. Afterthe ERP process has performed the translation of the query request andreceived raw results from the streaming mode, the search head canintegrate the returned data with any data obtained from local datasources (e.g., native to the search support system), other external datasources, and other ERP processes (if such operations were required tosatisfy the terms of the query). An advantage of mixed mode operation isthat, in addition to streaming mode, the ERP process is also executingconcurrently in reporting mode. Thus, the ERP process (rather than thesearch head) is processing query results (e.g., performing eventbreaking, timestamping, filtering, possibly calculating statistics ifrequired to be responsive to the query request, etc.). It should beapparent to those skilled in the art that additional time is needed forthe ERP process to perform the processing in such a configuration.Therefore, the streaming mode will allow the search head to startreturning interim results to the user at the client device before theERP process can complete sufficient processing to start returning anysearch results. The switchover between streaming and reporting modehappens when the ERP process determines that the switchover isappropriate, such as when the ERP process determines it can beginreturning meaningful results from its reporting mode.

The operation described above illustrates the source of operationallatency: streaming mode has low latency (immediate results) and usuallyhas relatively low bandwidth (fewer results can be returned per unit oftime). In contrast, the concurrently running reporting mode hasrelatively high latency (it has to perform a lot more processing beforereturning any results) and usually has relatively high bandwidth (moreresults can be processed per unit of time). For example, when the ERPprocess does begin returning report results, it returns more processedresults than in the streaming mode, because, e.g., statistics only needto be calculated to be responsive to the search request. That is, theERP process doesn't have to take time to first return raw data to thesearch head. As noted, the ERP process could be configured to operate instreaming mode alone and return just the raw data for the search head toprocess in a way that is responsive to the search request.Alternatively, the ERP process can be configured to operate in thereporting mode only. Also, the ERP process can be configured to operatein streaming mode and reporting mode concurrently, as described, withthe ERP process stopping the transmission of streaming results to thesearch head when the concurrently running reporting mode has caught upand started providing results. The reporting mode does not require theprocessing of all raw data that is responsive to the query requestbefore the ERP process starts returning results; rather, the reportingmode usually performs processing of chunks of events and returns theprocessing results to the search head for each chunk.

For example, an ERP process can be configured to merely return thecontents of a search result file verbatim, with little or no processingof results. That way, the search head performs all processing (such asparsing byte streams into events, filtering, etc.). The ERP process canbe configured to perform additional intelligence, such as analyzing thesearch request and handling all the computation that a native searchindexer process would otherwise perform. In this way, the configured ERPprocess provides greater flexibility in features while operatingaccording to desired preferences, such as response latency and resourcerequirements.

2.15. IT Service Monitoring

As previously mentioned, the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE platform providesvarious schemas, dashboards and visualizations that make it easy fordevelopers to create applications to provide additional capabilities.One such application is SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™, which performsmonitoring and alerting operations. It also includes analytics to helpan analyst diagnose the root cause of performance problems based onlarge volumes of data stored by the SPLUNK® ENTERPRISE system ascorrelated to the various services an IT organization provides (aservice-centric view). This differs significantly from conventional ITmonitoring systems that lack the infrastructure to effectively store andanalyze large volumes of service-related event data. Traditional servicemonitoring systems typically use fixed schemas to extract data frompre-defined fields at data ingestion time, wherein the extracted data istypically stored in a relational database. This data extraction processand associated reduction in data content that occurs at data ingestiontime inevitably hampers future investigations, when all of the originaldata may be needed to determine the root cause of or contributingfactors to a service issue.

In contrast, a SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ system stores largevolumes of minimally-processed service-related data at ingestion timefor later retrieval and analysis at search time, to perform regularmonitoring, or to investigate a service issue. To facilitate this dataretrieval process, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ enables a user todefine an IT operations infrastructure from the perspective of theservices it provides. In this service-centric approach, a service suchas corporate e-mail may be defined in terms of the entities employed toprovide the service, such as host machines and network devices. Eachentity is defined to include information for identifying all of theevent data that pertains to the entity, whether produced by the entityitself or by another machine, and considering the many various ways theentity may be identified in raw machine data (such as by a URL, an IPaddress, or machine name). The service and entity definitions canorganize event data around a service so that all of the event datapertaining to that service can be easily identified. This capabilityprovides a foundation for the implementation of Key PerformanceIndicators.

One or more Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are defined for a servicewithin the SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ application. Each KPImeasures an aspect of service performance at a point in time or over aperiod of time (aspect KPI's). Each KPI is defined by a query thatderives a KPI value from the machine data of events associated with theentities that provide the service. Information in the entity definitionsmay be used to identify the appropriate events at the time a KPI isdefined or whenever a KPI value is being determined. The KPI valuesderived over time may be stored to build a valuable repository ofcurrent and historical performance information for the service, and therepository, itself, may be subject to query processing. Aggregate KPIsmay be defined to provide a measure of service performance calculatedfrom a set of service aspect KPI values; this aggregate may even betaken across defined timeframes or across multiple services. Aparticular service may have an aggregate KPI derived from substantiallyall of the aspect KPI's of the service to indicate an overall healthscore for the service.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ facilitates the production ofmeaningful aggregate KPI's through a system of KPI thresholds and statevalues. Different KPI definitions may produce values in differentranges, and so the same value may mean something very different from oneKPI definition to another. To address this, SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ implements a translation of individual KPI values to acommon domain of “state” values. For example, a KPI range of values maybe 1-100, or 50-275, while values in the state domain may be ‘critical,’‘warning,’ ‘normal,’ and ‘informational’. Thresholds associated with aparticular KPI definition determine ranges of values for that KPI thatcorrespond to the various state values. In one case, KPI values 95-100may be set to correspond to ‘critical’ in the state domain. KPI valuesfrom disparate KPI's can be processed uniformly once they are translatedinto the common state values using the thresholds. For example, “normal80% of the time” can be applied across various KPI's. To providemeaningful aggregate KPI's, a weighting value can be assigned to eachKPI so that its influence on the calculated aggregate KPI value isincreased or decreased relative to the other KPI's.

One service in an IT environment often impacts, or is impacted by,another service. SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can reflect thesedependencies. For example, a dependency relationship between a corporatee-mail service and a centralized authentication service can be reflectedby recording an association between their respective servicedefinitions. The recorded associations establish a service dependencytopology that informs the data or selection options presented in a GUI,for example. (The service dependency topology is like a “map” showinghow services are connected based on their dependencies.) The servicetopology may itself be depicted in a GUI and may be interactive to allownavigation among related services.

Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can includeinformational fields that can serve as metadata, implied data fields, orattributed data fields for the events identified by other aspects of theentity definition. Entity definitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ can also be created and updated by an import of tabulardata (as represented in a CSV, another delimited file, or a query resultset). The import may be GUI-mediated or processed using importparameters from a GUI-based import definition process. Entitydefinitions in SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can also be associatedwith a service by means of a service definition rule. Processing therule results in the matching entity definitions being associated withthe service definition. The rule can be processed at creation time, andthereafter on a scheduled or on-demand basis. This allows dynamic,rule-based updates to the service definition.

During operation, SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ can recognizeso-called “notable events” that may indicate a service performanceproblem or other situation of interest. These notable events can berecognized by a “correlation search” specifying trigger criteria for anotable event: every time KPI values satisfy the criteria, theapplication indicates a notable event. A severity level for the notableevent may also be specified. Furthermore, when trigger criteria aresatisfied, the correlation search may additionally or alternativelycause a service ticket to be created in an IT service management (ITSM)system, such as a systems available from ServiceNow, Inc., of SantaClara, Calif.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides various visualizations builton its service-centric organization of event data and the KPI valuesgenerated and collected. Visualizations can be particularly useful formonitoring or investigating service performance. SPLUNK® IT SERVICEINTELLIGENCE™ provides a service monitoring interface suitable as thehome page for ongoing IT service monitoring. The interface isappropriate for settings such as desktop use or for a wall-mounteddisplay in a network operations center (NOC). The interface mayprominently display a services health section with tiles for theaggregate KPI's indicating overall health for defined services and ageneral KPI section with tiles for KPI's related to individual serviceaspects. These tiles may display KPI information in a variety of ways,such as by being colored and ordered according to factors like the KPIstate value. They also can be interactive and navigate to visualizationsof more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a service-monitoring dashboardvisualization based on a user-defined template. The template can includeuser-selectable widgets of varying types and styles to display KPIinformation. The content and the appearance of widgets can responddynamically to changing KPI information. The KPI widgets can appear inconjunction with a background image, user drawing objects, or othervisual elements, that depict the IT operations environment, for example.The KPI widgets or other GUI elements can be interactive so as toprovide navigation to visualizations of more detailed KPI information.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization showingdetailed time-series information for multiple KPI's in parallel graphlanes. The length of each lane can correspond to a uniform time range,while the width of each lane may be automatically adjusted to fit thedisplayed KPI data. Data within each lane may be displayed in a userselectable style, such as a line, area, or bar chart. During operation auser may select a position in the time range of the graph lanes toactivate lane inspection at that point in time. Lane inspection maydisplay an indicator for the selected time across the graph lanes anddisplay the KPI value associated with that point in time for each of thegraph lanes. The visualization may also provide navigation to aninterface for defining a correlation search, using information from thevisualization to pre-populate the definition.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides a visualization for incidentreview showing detailed information for notable events. The incidentreview visualization may also show summary information for the notableevents over a time frame, such as an indication of the number of notableevents at each of a number of severity levels. The severity leveldisplay may be presented as a rainbow chart with the warmest colorassociated with the highest severity classification. The incident reviewvisualization may also show summary information for the notable eventsover a time frame, such as the number of notable events occurring withinsegments of the time frame. The incident review visualization maydisplay a list of notable events within the time frame ordered by anynumber of factors, such as time or severity. The selection of aparticular notable event from the list may display detailed informationabout that notable event, including an identification of the correlationsearch that generated the notable event.

SPLUNK® IT SERVICE INTELLIGENCE™ provides pre-specified schemas forextracting relevant values from the different types of service-relatedevent data. It also enables a user to define such schemas.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:generating a first query directed toward a data set of raw data, thedata set being stored on a data store accessible to one or morecomputing devices, wherein the data set comprises a plurality oftime-stamped events extracted from the raw data, wherein the raw data ismachine generated data; sending the first query to the one or morecomputing devices, wherein the first query is executed by at least onecomputing device of the one or more computing devices; receiving a firstset of query result information based on one or more events extractedfrom the data set in response to executing the first query, and whereinthe one or more events extracted from the data set are stored as acorresponding one or more event records in the data store; displaying afirst graphical representation comprising a visualization of the firstquery and a visualization of the first query result information;generating a second query directed toward the data set; sending thesecond query to the one or more computing devices, wherein the secondquery is executed by at least one computing device of the one or morecomputing devices; receiving a second set of query result informationbased on one or more events extracted from the data set in response toexecuting the second query; and displaying a second graphicalrepresentation comprising a visualization of the second query and avisualization of a combination of the first and second query resultinformation.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the raw data comprisesraw data generated by one or more computing devices operating in aninformation technology (IT) environment.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the raw data corresponds to activity performed by one or morecomputing devices operating in an information technology (IT)environment.
 4. The method of claim 1, performed in an interactivedevelopment environment (IDE) interface configured to interactivelyevaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to a searchlanguage corresponding to a search system.
 5. The method of claim 1,performed in a read-eval-print loop (REPL) interface configured tointeractively evaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to asearch language corresponding to a search system.
 6. The method of claim1, performed in a notebook interface configured to interactivelyevaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to a searchlanguage corresponding to a search system.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the first query comprises a dynamic reference to at least oneprior query with a value that is subject to change, and further whereinchanges to a result of the at least one prior query automaticallytriggers corresponding changes in the visualization of the first queryresult information.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set ofquery result information is generated using a late binding schema andcomprises one or more events from the plurality of time-stamped events.9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first graphical representationcomprises a representation of the first query result informationpresented chronologically in-line and adjacent to a display of the firstquery used to generate the first query result information.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the second graphical representation comprisesa dynamic reference to at least one of: the first query; and the firstquery result visualization.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein thesecond graphical representation comprises a dynamic reference to atleast one of the first query and the first query result visualization,further wherein the second graphical representation is automaticallyupdated in response to detecting an update to the at least one of thefirst query and the first query result visualization.
 12. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: receiving user input corresponding to athird query directed toward the data set of raw data; generating a thirdquery in response to the user input; sending the third query to the oneor more computing devices; receiving third query result informationbased on one or more events extracted from the data set that satisfy thethird query; and displaying a third graphical representation comprisinga visualization of the third query and a visualization of a combinationof the third query result information, the second query resultinformation, and the first query result information, wherein the thirdgraphical representation is iteratively positioned in a correspondingdiscrete display region of the display relative to the first and secondgraphical representations
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein thedisplaying of a first graphical representation comprises generating thevisualization according to a first plurality of display parameters. 14.The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying of a first graphicalrepresentation comprises: generating the visualization according to afirst set of display parameters; receiving user input corresponding to asecond set of display parameters; re-formatting the visualization basedon the second set of display parameters; and updating the display withthe re-formatted visualization.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst query is executed by at least one computing device of the one ormore computing devices using a late binding schema.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first graphical representation and the secondgraphical representation are comprised in a plurality of graphicalrepresentations of information corresponding to a plurality of queries,further wherein the plurality of graphical representations are renderedin a single integrated display panel.
 17. The method of claim 1, whereinthe data set comprises a continuously updated data set.
 18. Anon-transitory computer readable medium having instructions storedthereon which, when executed by a processing device, causes theprocessing device to implement an interface for iterative exploration ofsearch data, the instructions comprising: instructions to generate afirst query directed toward a data set of raw data, the data set beingstored on a data store accessible to one or more computing devices,wherein the data set comprises a plurality of time-stamped eventsextracted from the raw data, and wherein the raw data is machinegenerated data; instructions to send the first query to the one or morecomputing devices, wherein the first query is executed by at least onecomputing device of the one or more computing devices; instructions toreceive a first set of query result information based on one or moreevents extracted from the data set in response to executing the firstquery, and wherein the one or more events extracted from the data setare stored as a corresponding one or more event records in the datastore; instructions to display a first graphical representationcomprising a graphical representation of the first query resultinformation and includes a dynamic reference comprising a visualizationof the first query and a visualization of the first query resultinformation; instructions to generate a second query directed toward thedata set; instructions to send the second query to the one or morecomputing devices, wherein the second query is executed by at least onecomputing device of the one or more computing devices; instructions toreceive a second set of query result information based on one or moreevents extracted from the data set in response to executing the secondquery; and instructions to display a second graphical representationcomprising a visualization of the second query and a visualization of acombination of the first and second query result information.
 19. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the interface comprises aninteractive development environment (IDE) interface configured tointeractively evaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to asearch language corresponding to a search system.
 20. The computerreadable medium of claim 18, wherein the interface comprises aread-eval-print loop (REPL) interface configured to interactivelyevaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to a searchlanguage corresponding to a search system.
 21. The computer readablemedium of claim 18, wherein the interface comprises a notebook interfaceconfigured to interactively evaluate search expressions syntacticallyconforming to a search language corresponding to a search system. 22.The computer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the instructionsfurther comprise: instructions to receive user input corresponding to athird query directed toward the data set of raw data; instructions togenerate a third query in response to the user input; instructions tosend the third query to the one or more computing devices; instructionsto receive third query result information based on one or more eventsextracted from the data set in response to executing the third query;and instructions to display a third graphical representation comprisinga visualization of the third query and a visualization of a combinationof the third query result information, the second query resultinformation, and the first query result information, wherein the thirdgraphical representation is iteratively positioned in a correspondingdiscrete display region of the display relative to the first and secondgraphical representations.
 23. The computer readable medium of claim 18,wherein the second graphical representation comprises a dynamicreference to at least one of: the first query; and the first queryresult visualization.
 24. The computer readable medium of claim 18,wherein the second graphical representation comprises a dynamicreference to at least one of the first query and the first query resultvisualization, and wherein the second graphical representation isautomatically updated in response to detecting an update to the at leastone of the first query and the first query result visualization.
 25. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 18, wherein the first query isexecuted by at least one computing device of the one or more computingdevices using a late binding schema.
 26. A computer system comprising: astorage device having data and instructions stored thereon to implementan interface for iterative exploration of search data; and a processingunit communicatively coupled to the storage device and configured toexecute the instructions to perform a plurality of operations including:generating a first query directed toward a data set of raw data, thedata set being stored on a data store accessible to one or morecomputing devices, wherein the data set comprises a plurality oftime-stamped events extracted from the raw data, and wherein the rawdata is machine generated data; sending the first query to the one ormore computing devices, wherein the first query is executed by at leastone computing device of the one or more computing devices; receiving afirst set of query result information based on one or more eventsextracted from the data set in response to executing the first query;displaying a first graphical representation comprising a visualizationof the first query and a visualization of the first query resultinformation; generating a second query directed toward the data set;sending the second query to the one or more computing devices, whereinthe second query is executed by at least one computing device of the oneor more computing devices; receiving a second set of query resultinformation based on one or more events extracted from the data set inresponse to executing the second query, and wherein the one or moreevents extracted from the data set are stored as a corresponding one ormore event records in the data store; and displaying a second graphicalrepresentation comprising a visualization of the second query and avisualization of a combination of the first and second query resultinformation
 27. The computer system of claim 26, wherein the interfaceis implemented as an interactive development environment (IDE) interfaceconfigured to interactively evaluate search expressions syntacticallyconforming to a search language corresponding to a search system. 28.The computer system of claim 26, wherein the interface is implemented asa read-eval-print loop (REPL) interface configured to interactivelyevaluate search expressions syntactically conforming to a searchlanguage corresponding to a search system.
 29. The computer system ofclaim 26, wherein the interface is implemented as a notebook interfaceconfigured to interactively evaluate search expressions syntacticallyconforming to a search language corresponding to a search system. 30.The computer system of claim 26, wherein the plurality of operationsfurther include: receiving user input corresponding to a third querydirected toward the data set of raw data; generating a third query inresponse to the user input; sending the third query to the one or morecomputing devices; receiving third query result information based on oneor more events extracted from the data set in response to executing thethird query; and displaying a third graphical representation comprisinga visualization of the third query and a visualization of a combinationof the third query result information, the second query resultinformation, and the first query result information, wherein the thirdgraphical representation is iteratively positioned in a correspondingdiscrete display region of the display relative to the first and secondgraphical representations.